When Lady Meriden’s eldest stepson and husband die within days of each other, the estate passes to the second stepson. No one has seen him in years, yet he inherits everything, including his father’s gambling debts and guardianship of his seven siblings. Jane Ash rushes to her aunt’s aid. Months go by before the new baron comes, and Jane is left to cope with her ailing, self-dramatizing aunt and bewildered cousins, all of whom have problems. Lady Meriden alternately spoils and neglects them. Julian, the heir, has his own problems and wants nothing less than to play the heavy parent to his unknown siblings. When he does come, he and Jane form an unexpected alliance that might lead, by twists and turns, to romance.

ONE BETRAYAL SHOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH

Enchantingly lovely Laura Dalwood was little more than a girl when she was given in marriage to a man whose glittering wealth concealed a dark secret revealed to her only on her wedding night.

Now her husband’s death had freed her from that odious union—and Laura vowed never to make so grievous an error again.

But how could she reject the handsome and brilliant Mark Cheney, Earl of Dartmouth, when his proposal was one that no young woman of sense or sensibility could rightly decline?

And what could she do when, as his bride, he carried her over the threshold to allow her to discover just how much she could love a man—and then, to her distress, just how much she could fear him…

When supermodel Patsy Clark found herself in big trouble with an unscrupulous investment syndicate, she turned to her best friend’s kid brother for help. Like Patsy, dark-haired, dynamic Michael Melville had come a long way since junior high. A brilliant accountant and former Justice Department gangbuster, he was just the man to protect her from the mob…and just the lover to make all her previous romances seem as unreal as her own commercials. But when the excitement of trapping the country’s most-wanted embezzlers was over, would he still want Patsy…or would she just be good old “Red” again, the girl next door?

Young Lady Jane Fitzmaurice had everything that Regency society approved of—flawless beauty, perfect breeding, and a respectable fortune.

But she also had a mind and heart of her own that set heads shaking and tongues wagging.

Whoever heard of a well-born Miss spending more time in the saddle than in the drawing room? How could she prefer the company of David Chance, her handsome horse-trainer, to that of Julian Wrexham, the most attractive nobleman in England?

Lady Jane had taken London society by storm—but now a whirlwind of scandal was rising as she rode roughshod over all conventions and prepared to take a leap that could destroy her good name, and leave her heart forever broken…

Zane Martin’s teenage daughter is pregnant. Meg Evan’s son is the baby’s father. Because Zane grew up not knowing who his father was, he’ll be damned if he’ll let his grandchild live with that shame. Meg was forced into an abusive marriage because of an unplanned pregnancy, so she knows that love is the only good reason to marry. Neither Meg nor Zane expects or welcomes the attraction that sparks between them. As they await the impending birth of their grandchild, old wounds open and long hidden family secrets come to light. The young couple build a newer, stronger relationship, while Meg and Zane reach for a love passionate enough to overcome the past–if they’re strong enough to trust it…and each other.

Felicia, a beautiful innocent faced with the passion of an irresistible rake. Adela, unable to forgive her husband for what he has done to her. Bronwen, forced to choose between a proper marriage and an impossible desire. Marjorie, an unpolished heiress who becomes the target of society’s most jaded gentleman. Rachel, a wife who finds that the marriage game is played with shocking rules in high society. Five enchanting heroines in five dazzling tales, strung like jewels on a single narrative thread. Five new triumphs by the on and only Edith Layton.

SPOILED AND UNGOVERNED, FITZ WAS NOT SUITABLE COMPANION FOR A LADY OF FASHION….

And certainly no proper chaperon. Fitz begged to disagree–after all, a dog was a true Incomparable as far as friendship, loyalty, and protection–and soon lovely Miss Sonia was plucked by her rusticated roots and packed off, dog and all, to London. Perhaps there she would find a husband to tame her free-spirited ways–and keep her out of trouble.

Sonia, however, always had a soft spot for the underdog, and Darius Conover was such a fellow. Scorned by society for a scandalous deed, Conover was not redeemed even by his heroics in battle. Until he met Sonia and Fitz, two passionate souls undaunted by even the most odious circumstances–and decidedly determined to undo the shackles binding his heart.

The long-awaited third anthology of Edith Layton’s Regency romance Christmas stories includes four enchanting holiday tales. Originally published in separate anthologies, and out-of-print for many years, these holiday novellas by legendary Regency romance author Edith Layton are in one volume for the first time ever! This collection includes the following stories:

The Christmas Thief

High Spirits

Best Wishes

The Two Dancing Daughters

It’s 1985. Threatened by the spectre of mortal illness, beautiful Abigail Winslow suddenly forsakes her glittering world of high-priced antiques and New York, solely for a daring struggle with her past. Desperate, she plunges into a brief but passionate affair with a strikingly handsome young doctor, retraces the course of her troubled childhood, and searches for the one man she has never stopped loving.

But when Abigail returns to her life and to her career, she realizes that in one wild, frightened moment she had been offered everything she could ever desire…and emerges ready to live again, with a joy she had never dared imagine.

Viscount Aubrey “Stony” Wellstone is at the end of his rope—and the end of his family’s once-great fortune. Desperate, he tries his luck at the gaming tables, where an offer to exchange his debts for a gentlemanly favor leads to a profitable new profession…as an “honorable escort” accompanying the cream of the ton. The fiercely independent, flame-tressed Miss Ellianne Kane would normally have no use for an upper-class attendant—even one as striking as Stony—but she needs Aubrey’s help. Will Aubrey prove to her that there is far more to him than want of money?

Two sisters, one Season. Chloe won’t be content with her first Season unless she catches the eye–and the heart–of the ton’s most wealthy, most handsome, most interesting bachelor. And she has no intention of sitting around waiting to be noticed. Phaedra just wants the Season to end so she can return to the country, unburdened with anything so useless as a husband. The only thing interesting about London is its cultural treasures, which she intends to sample liberally.

The men in the sisters’ court aren’t quite sure what to make of them. Lord Wilderlake is intrigued, Mr. Dervigne intends seduction, the Earl of Everingham is enchanted, Mr. Martin wants a big sister, and Reggie Farwell is merely amused. Faced with such an assortment of suitors, how can Chloe and Phaedra realize their dreams? Only time–and the course of true love–will tell.

First published in 1958 and then turned into a film of the same name in 1959 featuring Troy Donahue, Sandra Dee, Dorothy McGuire and Richard Egan, this classic romance is available for the first time in ebook format.

Ken and Sylvia met twice at the Summer Place.

The first summer they were in their teens. Their intimacy was without love. They’d met too early.

The second summer they shouldn’t have fallen in love…and did. They were in their thirties-married-each with children. Had they met too late?

Ken and Sylvia decided to break two marriages to make the one they wanted together.

They almost broke a third that hadn’t even started yet. Because Ken’s daughter and Sylvia’s son met at the Summer Place. They were in their teens. For them, it was neither too early nor too late.

This novel is about how marriages are made on earth-and unmade. It is about the price people pay for changing their minds about love.

After the cold-blooded murder of her odious husband, Marisol Pendenning, a lovely but pregnant young widow, and Lord Kimbrough, the handsome aristocrat who had been the last to see the victim alive, are drawn into the search for a killer.

With her sunset hair and flashing mocha eyes, Cristabel Stew is a rare jewel for any man. But for Old Captain Whiskey, the most notorious pirate sea dog of the Caribbean, his daughter is more precious than the richest swag of gold and silk. When he brings back a proper English gent from his latest plunder, his plan for her future seems secure. The prized captive is none other than Magnus Titus Snow, Viscount of Camcen Hall, a blue-blood with wealth enough for a freebooter’s ransom. In a hasty ceremony, Captain Whiskey weds the unwilling nobleman to his spirited brigand lass, making her Lady Cristabel Snow—a TRUE lady.

But Cristable, too, has a scheme. Raised among cutthroats, she has vowed never to surrender to any man. She will sail back with her new spouse as far as London. Then she will bid him and her pirate life farewell, and seek her fortune as a free woman. But, in a moment’s breath, the dream is dashed. For her reluctant husband reveals a secret of his own, a surprising and scandalous truth that will turn her father’s heart as black as his sins…and draw her into the arms of a dangerously seductive man she will not, dare not, love.

Aurora Halle McPhee, a girl of humble (some might say unconventional) background, cannot believe her luck when she is betrothed to the dashing, well-bred Harland Podell. Aurora soon learns, however, that the match is too good to be true when the nuptials are interrupted–by the brother of the groom’s wife!

Kenyon Warriner, Earl of Windham, is determined to foil that bigamous bounder Podell, before he disgraces another innocent female as he did Kenyon’s own sister. The earl will save Miss McPhee’s honor.

Even if he must wed her himself…

Denise is taking her son to a fete; her ex Chris is taking his daughter too. Thrown together when the kids decide to spend the day together, Denise and Chris confront their feelings for one another, and about last weekend. A short story.

A classic work from author Barbara Metzger, now available in ebook format for the first time!

Never did Alexander “Ace” Endicott, the Earl of Cards, imagine himself to be thrice-betrothed against his will by the doings of three desperate debutantes. So he escapes London to his property in the country, where he follows through with his deceased father’s last wish-to find his long-lost step-sister. His search takes a detour and leads him to Nell, who piques his interest. Now, Ace may have to reconsider his rejection of marriage and see if two mismatched lovers can make a royal pair.

Lucinda’s life was tragically cut short in a most scandalous manner, and her only means of entering Heaven lies in saving Lord Stanford from Hell. Perhaps while guiding the notorious rake onto a virtuous path, she can show him how true love will save his immortal soul…

SHE WAS A MOST UNUSUAL MISS, TO BE SURE!

Lovely Lisanne Neville had always found solace in the verdant beauty of Sevrin Woods. But now the woods were about to be destroyed in order to pay off the gambling debts of the Duke of St. Sevrin. Clearly, drastic measures were called for. So Lisanne proposed marriage to the duke. The deal: her fortune for his woods.

The Duke of St. Sevrin put aside his bottle long enough to consider this mad bargain, recognizing he had nothing to offer this sprite of a girl save his crumbling home, hellish reputation, and mountain of bills. He accepted. It was not the beginning of a fairy-tale marriage–but never underestimate the power of love . . . and a little bit of magic!

The long-awaited second anthology of Edith Layton’s Regency romance Christmas stories includes four heart-warming tales. Originally published in separate anthologies, and out-of-print for many years, these holiday novellas by legendary Regency romance author Edith Layton are in one volume for the first time ever! This collection includes the following stories:

The Earl’s Nightingale

The Hounds of Heaven

The Rake’s Christmas

The Dark Man

Desperate to reinvent her life after her wedding is canceled, Calliope Marshall chooses an exotic vacation in Costa Rica. The guidebook, however, neglects to mention steamy nights and strip poker games with a man who looks like an archangel. But even an archangel can come, it seems, with a devious, meddling grandmother, and soon Calli finds her quest for independence diverted in an entirely unexpected way.

Matt Holloway is on vacation to keep an eye on his grandmother. He doesn’t expect to be rescuing a cute, curvy muse from territorial monkeys and carnivore-infested rivers. The strip poker games in the wee hours of the morning are a bonus, until he finds himself losing more than his clothes.

Rane Ballantyne is instantly attracted as he watches his niece’s riding instructor, Brit Andover, flying over jump after jump as she pilots her big gelding around the Grand Prix level course.  When they meet, he is gratified to see she feels the same spark of attraction he does. But while Rane wants to see where it leads, Brit is wary of any possible romance. She’s busy, too busy, trying to keep her head above water in the uncertain and demanding business of training and showing horses as well as giving riding lessons.

Rane  becomes her newest student, and insists on private lessons.  Brit cannot afford to turn away a paying client but she does try to dissuade him by turning his lessons into torturous episodes of endurance. Over time, his determination slowly overcomes Brit’s resistance.  She admits she, too, wants what he wants for them: Even as Brit aches for what he describes, even as they do grow closer emotionally and physically, she is still afraid because she has never told how he reminds her of her first love, a man who is still very much part of her world.

Paige Holbrook needs help to bring her son out of a coma. In desperation, she turns to Bidwell Bear, young Jamie’s TV idol.

From the first meeting between Paige and Hunter Blackwell, the man inside the Bidwell costume, each experiences an attraction neither can ignore. But Hunter is about to realize his life-long dream–to be a singing star.

Glitz and glamour aren’t Paige’s thing, not after what she’s been through with her star quarterback, playboy ex-husband.

Is Hunter’s love worth the glare of the spotlight?

On a buying trip for her interior design firm, Kat Feldman is unprepared for Africa’s rough, exotic wilderness. This is nothing like the civilized streets of Europe and New York. There are monkeys committing mayhem in the trees outside her hotel room, gigantic insects in her bathroom and a man prowling the corridors who is inspiring her body to break all her dating rules.

Jackson Roarke is an avid outdoorsman. Baby-sitting a high maintenance city girl is not his idea of a perk. Except the city girl surprises and captivates him with her determination, adventurous spirit and courage. Poached ivory and Jackson’s past collide to threaten their future, but in this primitive land, Kat discovers new strengths and a love she has only dreamed of, and Jackson learns there are second chances.

This compelling saga about a beautiful Celtic princess who gives her heart to a Saxon prince explodes with the passions of love and war. When the Saxon army, in its bloody charge against the Celts, captures the child-princess Niniane, they bring her to Cynric, King of the West Saxons. Enchanted by her innocence and beauty, he makes Niniane a favored prisoner. But she soon discovers that the King’s court abounds with tempestuous intrigues and tormented rivalries. And when the adulterous and envious Queen arranges for a duel between the King’s beloved illegitimate son and her own son, heir to the throne, intrigue turns to deadly peril. With this epic novel of the star-crossed passion that swept the Celts and Saxons to the brink of war—and two lovers to the edge of oblivion–Joan Wolf brilliantly brings alive a little-known but fascinating age.

He sailed to England for revenge…
She journeyed there for love.

Five-year-old Della Kensington first saw the proud, half-starved bond boy who dared call himself a dispossessed earl on the docks of Virginia Colony. The moment she laid eyes on him she loved him. And from that day, in spite of all evidence, she believed his bizarre story, that he was truly Jared St. Andrew Bellington, Earl of Aveston—nobly born, kidnapped, and sold into bondage.

Della had grown into a woman wanting him. Jared had grown into a man burning for revenge. When at last he could return to his beloved Hawkstone Hall, he entered a world of bejeweled ladies and elegantly attired gentlemen, a world he intended to conquer—no matter the cost to his life. Fashionable Georgian England dazzled sweet Della, but her eyes remained clear. She saw that if Jared gained everything he’d sought, she might lose him forever, and he might lose his chance at real happiness. She was ready to fight on this new terrain for his love—dancing a quadrille of intrigue and desire, risking all, and challenging his elegant world with her irrepressible heart.

A hot appendix is about the only thing that would get Montana Thomas out of the isolated mountain valley he calls home, especially when his reappearance into the world could endanger the people he loves. All he wants to do is go home. But the weather doesn’t cooperate, and the treacherous mountain passes are closed for the winter.

Dr. Jericho Jax lost his wife to an auto crash a year ago. Worse, the medical team that was supposed to save her life failed. Now he has vowed vengeance on them all. One by one he checks names off his list, until he comes to Bisi Sinclair’s, the doctor who just saved Montana’s life. The woman he is falling in love with.

Montana senses something not quite right about Jericho. When he starts asking questions, arousing Jericho’s suspicions, he becomes the next target. In order to get to Bisi, Jericho has to go through Montana. And that may not be as easy as it looks, for Montana will do whatever it takes to protect what is his.

On his return from the Peninsular War, grievously wounded and troubled in spirit, Alexander Quainton decides that an insouciant manner is the best way to avoid the pity he abhors. Exercising his damaged body with daily walking excursions proves an excellent way of avoiding social engagements. Carolina Finmere, shy and no more than passable in looks, has failed in three seasons to attract a suitor.

For three months, they tramp Bath and its surrounding hills together, gaining in strength and–unwittingly–in intimacy. When September comes it is time to part, unless they admit their love for each other. Carolina knows she must initiate the declarations of devotion, for Alexander is convinced that a man so damaged is no fit mate for a gently bred woman. How can Carolina love someone so scarred and deformed as he?

Plucking up her courage, Carolina declares her love for Alexander. Will he admit his for her, or will his fear of seeing revulsion in her eyes put paid t

Gil Archer was a man of the world—the high-pressure, high-society world of international finance and diplomacy. Cecilia Vargas, his daughter’s riding instructor, was a woman outside that world, but he saw in her the warmth and love his grand estate lacked, and he took it for himself. She had married him for love—he taught her the meaning of ecstasy. But Gil still hadn’t learned that love was not something to be acquired and ignored—and the price of the lesson might be the loss of Cecilia.

All Elizabeth hoped to do was to rekindle the love in her marriage. Yet despite ignoring her social obligations and immersing herself in her husband’s important work, somehow this only made things worse.

Her last hope is her unborn child, a source of unrequited love to fill the void inside her. But that too is taken from her. How? Why?

Her doctor avoids her. Her husband berates her. And there are whispers–whispers telling of things that cannot be.

Yet the more Elizabeth ignores the rumors, the more they press on her to seek the truth, so she concocts a plan to find it. To find it and hopefully exonerate both Robert and herself. To discover the reason she’s lost all that’s dear to her. And she will, even if she must venture into Whitechapel to do it.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend and workaholic photojournalist Anna Maria “A.M.” LaRusa returns to Federal Hill, a small Italian-American enclave in Rhode Island, to spend a quiet holiday with her only remaining relative, her Aunt Minnie, a hip, 96-year-old who texts and has a blog. But when a blizzard Nor’easter threatens New England, there is a change in plans. As A.M. and her aunt prepare for the holiday and the storm, A.M. unexpectedly runs into a man she hasn’t seen in ten years—a man whom she still refers to as “the guy who broke my heart in college”—and her weekend and her life are suddenly upended. Stuck amid the snowy deep freeze that paralyzes the region, A.M. begins to wonder if her cold, wounded heart from an unrequited love will ever thaw.

A comet, they say, signals change. In a picturesque village in Cambridgeshire, India Pottersby did not think the Great Comet of 1811 would change anything in her quiet life as the vicar’s sister. And she was content for it to be so. A difficult life had brought her at last to security with her younger brother in his vicarage, and she had no desire for alteration.

Peter Trevayne had likewise come to harbour in the shire after fifteen profitable years in India. His purchase of Fencombe Hall created a stir in the neighbourhood. Speculation was rife, and the doyenne of local society made no secret of her mistrust of the stranger.

Comet watching introduced India to Trevayne, and her preparation of ‘comet wine’ intrigued him. But nothing could come of their friendship unless the community–and India–could accept change.

The study of antiquities is no fit activity for a lady, according to Amaryllis Raven’s guardians, the aunt and uncle who took her in after her father’s death. Yet her Aunt Sessiletyn makes no effort to introduce her to the ton. Heir to a marquessate, Chaunce Boothsby would rather dig for buried Roman ruins than play a man-about-town. They might never have met, but for a duck-chasing dog.

Before long she begins to dream impossible dreams.

But Aunt Sessiletyn sees Chaunce as a perfect match for her beautiful daughter, and attempts to convince Amaryllis that his only interest in her is her father’s only legacy, the secret location of his antiquities site. Only a bold move will allow love to triumph, and Chaunce must make it soon.

The heyday of gold discoveries is over in Idaho Territory, but there are still fortunes to be found. Eliza Jane Dollarhide believes that one is buried somewhere near a tiny mining camp deep in the wilderness. Her guide is Micah King, young, widowed, highly recommended–and Black. Never having known a person of color, Eliza is at first apprehensive, but soon learns that Micah is both a gentleman and a superbly competent guide.

A good thing, too, for soon after they reach the isolated gold mining town of Yellowjacket, they realize they face deadly danger. Someone is after the papers Eliza came to retrieve, and will stop at nothing, not even wanton murder, to get them. Only one road leads out of Yellowjacket, so Micah guides Eliza along a dangerous trail through the wilderness, depending on dim memories of a long-ago journey through almost impenetrable mountains. As they travel, each learns to know the other, and soon love blooms between them.

Impossible love, for Eliza is white. So even if they survive their ordeal–and escape whoever is trying to kill them–sooner or later they will have to part.

Or will they? Surely there must be a way they can be together, be happy.

Well-bred orphan Cristabel Swann tolerates her thankless teaching job — until her uncle dies unexpectedly. Arriving in London to claim her inheritance, Cristabel encounters something else entirely — a loutish naval captain who won all of the old man’s property in an evening’s gambling, leaving his niece nothing but debt! To his credit, Captain Chase recognizes her desperation and offers her a position as landlady of a “boarding house” in Kensington.

Cristabel is happy with her new situation and with the female tenants of the house. They are exceedingly well dressed for working-class girls and have many admirers. Cristabel soon has a beau of her own — the dashing Lord Winstoke, who seems just a tad familiar, both in appearance and in attitude. Of course, Cristabel maintains propriety in every situation. But she cannot understand why the men she meets are so forward. Could it be the company she keeps?

Cupboard Kisses won Romantic Times magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Award and the Best Regency Comedy award.

Filled with the lyrical beauty of a now-vanished world, this magnificent novel unfolds during the last great ice age, amid the mist-shrouded mountains of the Pyrenees in prehistoric France. When tainted spring water fatally poisons the women of the tribe of the Horse, the clan’s young men set forth to kidnap new women from the matriarchal tribe of the Red Deer—a quest that must succeed or their people will die out. Golden-haired Mar, the leader of the young men, falls in love with the beautiful Alin, daughter of the Red Deer priestess. And though they are born to embrace different traditions, raised to worship different gods, Mar will fight to claim this strangely powerful woman as his own. Against a lush backdrop of ancient magic, mammoth hunts, and secret rites, this mesmerizing novel brings to life the ritual and adventure of a primeval world and tells a timeless tale of conflict between two societies…two beliefs…two sexes…and two people.

Second generation Elvis impersonator, Elliot, is content with his small-town circuit and regular gigs at the Holiday Inn, until he attracts a fan who has never heard of the King. But stepping free of the shadow cast by both his father and Elvis may prove to be impossible. A short story.

Necessity dictates that Emilina Brook supplement her family’s income by accepting a position as music teacher in a young ladies’ academy. Fate decrees that she meet Dr. Secord Cardew while journeying by stagecoach to the school in a distant town. Dr. Cardew is in turn charming, unkind, amiable, callous, appealing, and occasionally rude. Emilina is drawn to him, but the real Dr. Cardew is a mystery. Is he a worthy admirer or does he have insuperable flaws?

Leeloo Brantley never dreamed she’d run into Nate Marshall, her long-time secret crush, after he graduated high school the year before.  Yet there he is, standing in Festivities, her mom’s party shop, a few days before Christmas with his brand new stepsister, four-year-old Anna.  Nate tells Leeloo he’s babysitting Anna while their parents honeymoon.  Leeloo tells Nate he’s not up for it, a fact proved when he calls her in desperation later that night begging for help.

Certain this is an early Christmas present straight from the elves, Leeloo eagerly agrees. And as the three of them begin to hang out under the decorated tree, Nate actually seems to see her with new eyes. Then a weather front brings scary thunderstorms no four-year-old can love. Though Nate assures Anna he’ll keep her and Leeloo safe forever, Leeloo has to wonder if he really means it or is simply trying to soothe a beloved little sister who’s afraid of thunder.

The lovely Lady Leonora Talwin had heard all the stories about the rakish Marquess of Severne and vowed never to become one of his victims. But she knew far too little about her foolish heart to daunt this lord who feasted on such feminine frailties.

A war hero’s widow, Graceanne still has her adorable three-year-old twin boys to love–until she receives a letter from her late husband’s demanding cousin, Leland Warrington, the Duke of Ware. It seems that the duke–thirty-two years old, twice widowed, and with no forseeable plans to marry again–is in desperate need of an heir. And seeing that Graceanne has two boys, she could easily spare one. Well, couldn’t she?

Graceanne is too strong a woman not to stand up to Leland’s completely unreasonable expectations. When she does, she unleashes a hair-raising maternal fury that takes Leland by surprise. He also finds it all, quite frankly, magnificent. So much so that he’s now entertaining thoughts of winning Graceanne’s heart, as well as an heir–a romantic scheme that grows more mischievous, and more unpredictable, with each passing winter night.

Orphaned in Florence, Lucy Raymond takes the only employment she can find, that of a castrato assistant to an art and antiquities dealer. But as she grows into womanhood, her masquerade chafes, for it allows none of the romance she craves.

In her loneliness she often visits the Piazza della Signoria, where she gazes at the magnificent sculptures and dreams impossible dreams. Until one day, when she is overcome by loneliness and the oppressive heat, she faints at the feet of an enormous sculpture, only to wake in the arms of its living embodiment.

Allowing herself to be seduced is the last thing Lucy should do. But Vido is warm and vital and the living image of David, so how can she resist?

Chinese by birth, Eurasian by blood, Mei-Ling Wang’s extraordinary life is a mirror of our time. Born in China in 1949, the year of the Red Army’s entry into Beijing, she is the daughter of an English mother and Chinese father who share the Communist vision of a more perfect future. Mei-ling grows to womanhood amid the violent passions and numbing brutality unleashed by the Cultural Revolution. In 1968, as a tidal wave of political turmoil engulfs the globe, Mei-Ling, penniless, is forced to flee her homeland. She embarks on an odyssey that carries her from China to Hong Kong to Europe to North America. Beautiful and intelligent, compelled by necessity and desire, Mei-Ling threads her way carefully among the men who love her and use her. She discovers the power of sex and the lure of wealth; she mastered the art of survival. When she returns to Hong Kong and China in 1997, the colony and the mainland are about to become one country again. The People’s Republic and the daughter who was forced to flee its shores so long before have been tempered by their struggles and stripped of their illusions. They are wealthy and strong. But they have been forced to relinquish the ideals that first brought them into being. Flowers for Mei-Ling is an epic story that propels the reader through fifty years of tumultuous events. With this panoramic first novel, Lorraine Lachs joins that company of ambitious novelists who explore both public affairs and private passions with understanding and conviction.

A LADY IN DISGUISE

Valentine Ardsley disguised herself as a teenaged boy to take a job as a groom on the magnificent Yorkshire estate of the arrogantly self-assured, imperiously handsome, Lord Diccon Leyburn. But her daring escape from the narrow confines of young ladyhood did not last long.

Valentine was unmasked by Lord Leyburn with shameful ease. Even worse, when Leyburn made her an offer of marriage, he made it insultingly clear that this was a matter of duty on his part, and certainly not desire.

Never would Valentine accept such an odious offer. Instead she would go to London to find a gentleman who would really love her—even if this meant pretending she could love any man but the infuriatingly irresistible Lord Leyburn in return…

Megan Bradshaw lives up to her nickname, Miss Prudie. Until, that is, she spills ice water into the lap of the sexy soldier in seat 4B. Shamelessly she offers him a ride to wherever he’s going, never mind that her life is overly complicated already.

Captain Duncan Fraser wants to stay in the Army, but isn’t sure he’ll be able to balance the family he longs for and his obligation to his country. Still, Megan is a lovely, interesting woman and he can’t resist responding.

And that’s when their responsibilities get in the way of their budding romance. Her rebellious twin sisters, his looming deployment, her mother’s illness, his need to keep his destination secret, all threaten any chance of happy-ever-after.

When disaster strikes, will they realize that being together when they can is more important than being apart forever? Or is the cost of Freedom too high?

A brand-new, never-released novel from the USA TODAY bestselling Regency author!

When a gentleman is found dead on a fishmonger’s doorstep in Regency London, a rugged Bow Street Runner has to pair with the man’s elegant noble nephew to solve the crime. They both find unexpected help—and infatuation—with the fishmonger’s very unusual young widow.

Individually, each has a reason for getting to the bottom of the mystery. And, as a trio, they find they are uniquely effective detectives with the ability to accomplish something few others can: solve a crime by scouring London, from its glorious heights of luxury to its rankest depths of depravity.

It should have been a marriage made in heaven. Cheviot was aristocratic and gorgeous—a man tempered by his father’s downfall and his own experiences at war. Sarah was artistic and free-thinking, shaped by the best education her nouveau riche grandfather could afford. But there was one problem. The marriage was arranged. The Duke of Cheviot needed money. Sarah’s grandfather wanted a title. And so, what could have been a perfect love affair was begun in a most imperfect way.

For Sophie Hanes, life is predictable and relatively uneventful, until . . .

. . . she finds an old diary in her grandmother’s attic, written in the unfamiliar Irish language, Gaelic. In her quest to know more, she sets out to find an interpreter and runs into the sexy New Yorker, Kevin Gates, who is more than happy to help interpret the language.

Kevin finds himself moving too close, too fast, falling in love with a woman who may be too preoccupied to share his feelings. There is another man bidding for Sophie’s attention: a History Professor in Ireland, well versed in the diary’s language.

As events unfold, Sophie finds out too late she’s been targeted in a sinister scheme.

The diary pulls Sophie into the life of Ms. Anya O’Connell, the young woman who writes of her fate and discloses the dark behavior of those who surround her. Sophie’s only hope may be a spirit-guide, the one they call Three. If she is willing to believe, he is willing to assist her in a journey she won’t soon forget.

Three years ago Jennie’s husband rejected her because she was unable to have a child. She filed for divorce in Nevada and waited out the residency requirement at Lake Tahoe. That’s where Rand met her, where he made love to her. Where she left him when her husband changed his mind.

He never forgot her, never stopped missing her and what might have been.

Now she’s a widow, still grieving for her husband a year after his death, still regretting that brief affair. When he appears at her door, she knows her life will never be the same. Even though she’s tried to forget him, done her best to forget that she’d been unfaithful to her husband, she can’t deny the past. Rand still hopes Jennie will someday be his, but after he meets her two-year-old daughter, his hope turns to steely determination. She will marry him, whether she loves him or not, because Miranda is his…must be his.

He is not unreasonable. He gives her six months to accept his ultimatum. He’ll wait six months while they date, get to know each other again. Six months until they marry…or else.

With the threat of a paternity test hanging over her, Jennie does the only thing she can. She dates Rand and allows him to become acquainted with Miranda. As time and his loving attention gradually wear down her resistance, she wonders if she will ever be able to overcome her guilt and shame over their affair and accept the love Rand is offering.

Sean’s whirlwind courtship so dazzled blues singer Rivie that she married him two weeks after they met. They had three months of bliss, before her ugly memories caught up with her. Finally her unspeakable secret has driven them apart.

After six months of separation, he still wants her back, so he offers her a bargain. If, after six months of trying to make their marriage succeed, she still wants to leave, he promises he will let her go. She hesitantly agrees, knowing that she can never tell him the truth about her past, because it will make him hate her.

Sean is determined to convince Rivie that she can trust him to love her, no matter what. She is just as determined to keep her secret. Only one of them will succeed, but their love for each other could mean they will both win in the end.

Sarah Stevens experiences a bride’s worst nightmare: being dumped at the altar. When she goes on the Caribbean cruise meant to be her honeymoon in order to lick her wounds, she discovers her ex-fiancé has sent his brother Will Marshall, the former best man, on the cruise as well. Everyone on board thinks they’re newlyweds, and Sarah is too embarrassed to set them straight. There is nothing like a romantic cruise to bring two people together, particularly when they are pretending to be honeymooners. Sarah discovers she is in love, real love. She believes Will cares for her too. But will his loyalty to Brad stand in the way of their happiness? Can she convince Will that he is her best man?

Livia Hightower is more than a little intrigued when the morning mail brings a most unexpected delivery.

Dearest Livia,

The call of the nightingale is but a sorrowful, plaintive psalm
Next to the sterling hue of my lady’s eyes, gazing mine.

It is signed simply Your Humble Admirer.

Again and again similar notes arrive in the post. Could it be a beguiling coincidence that they coincide with the arrival in the neighborhood of handsome Mr. Framingham? Surely Livia’s childhood friend, James, would never indulge in such romantic behavior, especially when he openly distrusts whoever is sending the tender missives.

With each new note, Livia becomes more convinced that her future lies with the sender. If only she could learn who he is…

When beautiful, dark-haired Vanessa MacIan met Edward Romney, Earl of Linton, she told herself she should hate this strong and handsome English lord. For Vanessa was daughter to a proud Scottish chieftain who was the sworn enemy of England, and a leader in a rising against British rule. But it was not hate but hunger that this man of so much power and passion woke within the Highland beauty. And as the flames of desire they felt for each other flared higher and higher, devouring all restraint and every barrier between them, even the violence of war could not defeat a blazing love that conquered all….

Jessica O’Neill was the toast of London society—a stunning actress who had appeared from nowhere to take the stage by storm. But not even her most ardent admirers suspected how brilliant an actress she was.

Nothing that Jessica said or did betrayed her true identity as a high-born young lady risking her good name in a desperate gamble to save her family from total ruin. And when the dashing, handsome, immensely wealthy Earl of Linton made Jessica an offer that was simply impossible to reject, there was no way she could turn back on her dangerous path.

Jessica O’Neill had to play the part of a wealth-hunting wanton to the hilt—but one thing was not in her script. Falling in love…

The new Duke of Lyndhurst, Lieutenant Colonel Miles Barclay, arrives home from the Peninsular War severely wounded, with no memory of how he was injured. He finds Seabring understaffed and the rector’s daughter in charge of his baby brother, Lord Peter, a child he wants nothing to do with.

Claire Trent has loved Miles since she tagged after him and her big brother when they were children. Widowed shortly after a youthful marriage, she has taken on the monumental task of holding Seabring together despite next to impossible circumstances. But now she must accept the greatest challenge of them all. She must save Miles’ life with her reputation intact, all the while hiding the fact that her feelings for him go far beyond friendship.

One, two, and then three inexplicable accidents put Miles, Peter and Claire in danger. Is someone trying to kill them all? Or just the duke?

Victim of brutal rape, Flower Jones longs for refuge in England, where she believes she will be safe. But she reckons without William King, an escaped slave, who wants her for his woman. Although he could live free in Cherry Vale, where no one will ever whip him again, William follows her as she travels to a seaport, risking capture as an escaped slave. The raw gold they carry excites the greed of outlaws, who force them to fight for their lives. Face to face with death, will Flower realize how precious life —and William—are to her?

Welcome to Whiterock, Oregon, where Sally Carruthers nurses her dying father, and dreams of the day she can go back to her real life. Where Gus Loring seeks forgetfulness, but to find it, he’d have to do the impossible and forgive himself.

Whiterock is a town where people are from, because there’s nothing to hold them there. Every year more of the stores on Main Street close, and every year more of its young people leave to find their fortunes somewhere else. Where what you see today may be different tomorrow.

Maybe that’s why the town persists. Because there is more to Whiterock than its 639 residents, the elk statue by the park, and the Bite-A-Wee Café. More to it than a place where Gus and Sally find temporary passion together. Whiterock is more than just a town. A lot more…

The magic of the holiday season comes alive with six winning Regency romance stories by a master of the genre. Originally published in separate anthologies, and out-of-print for many years, these Christmas-themed novellas by legendary Regency romance author Edith Layton are in one volume for the first time ever! This collection includes the following stories:

The Duke’s Progress

It’s a Wonderful Christmas

The Gingerbread Man

The Last Gift

The Amiable Miser

Dogstar

Years ago, Captain Jack Endicott’s half-sister vanished after a carriage accident. He now sets out to honor his father’s dying wish and find her. Jack plans to open a lavish gaming parlor and hire only beautiful ladies to deal cards, possibly finding his sister. All he needs is a little luck. Instead he finds prim schoolteacher Allie Silver, who needs a guardian for one of her most precocious pupils. With such an unlikely duo, all bets are off in a wild game of romance.

A shocking betrayal by the man she thought she loved is forcing Shawna Carlton to make some critical life choices. All she craves is peace and quiet this holiday season. The isolated cabin in the Mt. Hood National Forest seems perfect for reflection. But that’s before she discovers she has a woman-hating neighbor, and the old fishing cabin is home to more than just layers of dust.

Dr. Gregory Harris has his own heart-rending reasons for seeking solitude during the holiday season. What he doesn’t need is a noisy, helpless, forest-challenged city girl moving in next door. Before he know it, he’s chopping her wood, building her fires and letting her use his modern plumbing.

Fresh from the pain of lost love, can two people who sought solitude in the vastness of a forest, begin to heal together?

Nellie Sanders persuades her uncle, a renowned botanist, to allow her to join an expedition to the Sawtooth Valley in Idaho Territory in 1872. Using an assumed name, infamous shootist Malachi Breedlove contracts to lead the botanical expedition into the wilderness.

A crazy old woman steals Nellie, believing her a dead daughter returned to life. As leader of the expedition, Malachi is forced to send others to seek the woman he now realizes he loves. Nellie finally convinces the old woman to take her back, claiming she will die without Malachi.

No sooner are Nellie and Malachi reunited than disaster strikes the expedition. Now the lovers must face the dangers of the wilderness must, conquer old weaknesses and discover new strengths. As the summer ends, Nellie faces a choice between academic acclaim and love, while Malachi wonders whether he can hang up his guns and survive. Can they find a compromise that lets them both realize their dreams?

Natalie Dane is struggling. Against the advice of friends and family, she embraced selling real estate, a career that’s gone nowhere fast. In fact, the owners of her agency have issued an ultimatum: sell the McAdoo House or clear out your office. The problem? The structure in question is over one-hundred-years old, seriously run down, and, according to potential buyers, has an odd feel to it. Enter Simon Grayson, a man with questionable experience in haunted houses and talents no sensible person should trust. Worse, he’s clearly oblivious to Nat’s figure flaws, an attitude that flatters as much as alarms her. Focused on saving her career and struggling with low self-esteem, she has used her busy days as an excuse to avoid men. Simon, with his easy smile and blatant compliments, could easily break down her emotional barriers. She knows she’d be smart to avoid him. But times are hard, and Natalie is desperate–so desperate that she hires the guy in spite of his charm and good look.

Can Simon work his magic not only on the house, but on the woman trying to sell it? And what will happen when the job is done and it’s time for him to ride his Harley into the sunset?

Elizabeth Conway’s greatest ambition is to discover a comet. Unfortunately, she is the eldest of eight daughters of an earl, so her relatives expect her to take her rightful place in Society. The heavenly bodies she views through her telescope hold far more fascination for Elizabeth than any mere male, although her perpetual beau, dashing Lord Bevis, would change that if he could.

When Tom Conroy, a distant cousin and the new Earl of Clanross, appears after a year’s delay, Elizabeth offers him a cool welcome. He is a dull stick and ill-mannered to boot. Yet he is the only man who has shown respect for her astronomical work, and his concern for her younger sisters’ welfare reveals a different side to him. Then his heir, Elizabeth’s cousin Willoughby, appears with the obvious intent of making a match between his lovely but silly sister and Clanross–and as much mischief as he can. Lord Bevis presses his suit with Lady Elizabeth, until she agrees, at long last, to marry him. She resists making an announcement, though, until he tells his somewhat traditional father that he will not only be marrying an heiress but her telescope.

Elizabeth discovers a comet. Clanross proclaims his pride in her accomplishment, but Lord Bevis’s reaction is far more traditional. Willoughby introduces a beautiful woman into the mix and the twins further complicate it. Distraught, confused, perhaps even heartbroken, Elizabeth faces the question of what to do with the rest of her life. And what to do about Clanross, whom she just might love.

Miss Victoria Dawkins was in a most perilous position. Cast out of respectable society by a scurrilous slur on her good name, alone and penniless in the London lower depths, this proud but all too vulnerable young lady could not afford to turn down the Earl of Clune’s offer. The elegant, handsome, and clearly conscienceless nobleman wished to engage Victoria as a companion to an elderly woman on his great country estate.

Victoria had no illusions about the earl’s intentions toward her. But she was not prepared for a different kind of danger in a manor where the vengeful ghost of a scandalous past sought her as its victim.

Somehow Victoria had to stop the earl from suspecting he held the key to her heart. And she had to stop herself from yielding to a mysterious menace that she could not believe in or deny…

The slender young highwayman who held up Lord Raven’s coach was shocked to discover he had made a terrible mistake. He turned and fled, but not before Lord Raven had put a bullet in his shoulder. It was then Raven’s turn to be shocked. For the wounded highwayman turned out to be a beautiful young woman, the kind of woman the rakish Raven had been seeking all his life–Lady Tara. It was some time before Lady Tara could tell Raven the truth about this frightening masquerade. But when she did, she plunged them both into a dangerous mission that was to change their lives….

Where was Uncle Albert? The day of Lady Whilton’s nuptials was fast approaching, and the spiteful old lout had disappeared. Daphne Whilton, the bride’s daughter, knew what happened. She had found him dead in his chambers and vowed to keep it a secret, fearing the miser’s legacy would destroy her mother’s glorious wedding.

Lord Graydon Howell, the groom’s son-and Daphne’s former betrothed!-had lent his hand to the matter, moving Albert to the wine cellar. However, Albert’s adventure was only beginning, thanks to a pair of thieves, a house full of guests, and the reluctant conspiracy joining Daphne and Gray, who were hardly in the perfect circumstance for reawakening romance…

Lark Dailey faces a weekend at the mountain lodge of her mother’s mentor, poet Dai Llewellyn, without enthusiasm, but Lark’s detective-lover Jay finds the proximity of a notorious pot-farm interesting. The setting, a remote Sierra lake, is idyllic, perfect for canoeing and wind-surfing, not to mention fireworks. Neither Lark nor Jay expects the Fourth of July to end in murder.

Surrounded by old friends, ex-lovers, devoted servants–and someone who does not love him–the poet collapses. He has been poisoned by tincture of larkspur in his Campari. The irony is not lost on Lark, whose bookstore is called Larkspur Books, nor on Jay, who is tapped to investigate.

Jay’s investigation is complicated by the murder of two key witnesses and by bizarre embellishments in all three killings. The embellishments suggest that something less straightforward than greed is driving the killer, something like madness. The tangle of suspicion widens to include not only the poet’s weekend guests but even Lark’s charming, book-loving clerk.

Lark worries that her mother, who comes to town after the San Francisco funeral, may be in danger too, because someone does not like poets, and Mary Dailey, a noted poet, is Llewellyn’s literary executor. Her co-executor may have his own reasons for wanting to control the relics of Dai Llewellyn’s past. As Jay awaits a search warrant, a cocktail party of survivors gathers to honor Lark’s mother, and Lark determines to crash it in time to prevent another poisoning. Unfortunately, she’s not sure who the murderer is.

When we first meet Aili MacIntyre, she’s doing what she’s been doing all her life: running in fear. She flees through a foreign jungle with two young girls and tries to save them from the forced prostitution ring that has been holding them in a virtual hell-on-earth. But tragedy meets them under the trees, and only one child escapes.

Three years later, Alexandra Adelaide has acquired a new identity in a radically different scene: the metropolitan jungle of Greater Los Angeles. She, though saved by Grace, has invented what she believes is the appropriate way to suffer for her own sins. Alex is raising the child who was orphaned by her insecurities. And she never, for a second, lets herself forget the pain caused by her mistakes.
Then the real tragedy strikes . . .

. . . she falls in love.

Matthew Gold is everything she needs and a lot more than she could’ve imagined. Bright, attractive, generous, and with his own vested interest in Grace, Matt works hard to earn Alex’s trust and a place in her life. He even loves and seeks to protect her daughter, who is the key to breaking open the biggest human trafficking case in recent history.

But Alex has lived in fear since she took her first breath. So how does she let Love start a new day? How does she choose courage even as very real dangers draw closer to her barred doors?

Lovely Amanda Amberly was a young lady of unsullied virtue–against all odds. Her bewitching mother, the Countess of Clovelly, was notorious for her amorous escapades, and every hot-blooded gentleman in society expected Amanda to follow in the Countess’ straying footsteps.

So far Amanda had succeeded in steering clear of the clutches of those eager young blades. She even had begun to hope that the eminently respectable Sir Giles Boothe might consider her a possible match. But when, by her mother’s cunning design, Amanda found herself in the arms of the incredibly handsome and charming Viscount North, the most irresistible if infamous rake in the realm, she discovered she could defend her virtue only if she refused to listen to her heart.

Luke and Katie Savage, newly married and at the end of a danger-filled and arduous journey, finally reach Boise City, where her family awaits them. They both are tired and ready to rest. Katie is excited because Christmas is next week and they’ll spend it with her family. Luke isn’t sure he’s ready for a family celebration, especially when everyone–perhaps even Katie–is a stranger to him. Holidays should be happy events, but when you’re odd man out, it’s hard to get into the spirit of the season. But Katie loves him, so Luke will do his best.

WAS SOCIETY’S REIGNING BEAUTY IN LOVE WITH ADVENTURE—OR WITH ENGLAND’S MOST NOTORIOUS ADVENTURER?

Lord Richard Wells, Duke of Crewe, had shocked the Regency world by sailing off to darkest Africa. Now, five years later, his lovely daughter Julianne returned to London with a story of her father’s tragic death and her own miraculous rescue by the notorious English adventurer, John Champernoun.

Little did aristocratic society suspect what had really happened in Africa, nor did Julianne want that truth revealed. For Julianne was determined to leave her perilous past far behind, and find happiness in a supremely safe marriage to the splendidly handsome, wealthy, honorable and adoring Lord William Rutherford. But Julianne was about to learn that she knew more about the heart of the dark continent than she did about her own—when John Champernoun reentered her life to wake memories and desires as sharp-clawed as leopards, and even more dangerous…

Presentation at Almack’s is the pinnacle of every young lady’s social aspirations. Lady Genevra Haven has anticipated her attendance at the evening assemblies of the exclusive social club for weeks. The initial success of her introduction to society and the arrival of the coveted vouchers tempt her to extravagant dreams. But when the appointed Wednesday arrives, disappointment awaits her. Her mother will not allow her to wear her spectacles to the ball.

When she becomes separated from her companions, she takes a wrong turn and discovers that even Almack’s has a disturbing side. Myriad dangers lie in wait for a solitary and lovely young lady. If she keeps her head and employs courage and ingenuity, Genevra can return to the safety of the ballroom without incurring disapprobation or losing her reputation. But one mistake and her inadvertent adventure could spell social ruin.

Lady Jean Conway is wildly in love with Owen Davies, a Shellesque poet who is cataloguing the Brecon library, whereas her twin, Lady Margaret, has a tendre for Lord Clanross’s private secretary, who is in love with Jean. Both Johnny Dyott, the secretary, and Owen are involved in Radical politics. So is the Earl of Clanross, who wants an immediate reform of Parliament, to the horror of Lady Anne, his political sister-in-law. His wife, Lady Elizabeth, wants to study comets, and his best friend can’t decide whether to give away the fortune he’s inherited or buy his wife the country estate she yearns for. These intertwined stories play against a canvas of public events, including the divorce of Queen Caroline, in 1820, the silliest year in English history.

“A superb spellbinder…weaving a glimmering tapestry of incredible richness…captures the heart and soul of the Regency era…a gem of a book.” —Romantic Times

TWO FACES OF LOVE

Miss Susannah Logan felt very fortunate to have not one but two gentlemen shepherding her through the first London season.

One was the cynical and brilliant Mr. Warwick Jones, whose wit and wealth gave him free entry into society and whose pretended scorn for women was matched only by the sensual intensity of his passion for them.

The other was the handsome and honorable Julian, Viscount Hazelton, whose fierce desire for an unobtainable beauty had led him to financial ruin but could not mar his irresistible, godlike good looks.

Warwick Jones and Julian were good friends until they took the inexperienced Miss Logan in hand…each leading her on a different path of love and passion toward a decision that threatened to intoxicate her flesh…and yield her ripe innocence to the one man whose tantalizing nearness she could no longer resist.

A perfect summer romance!

Louisa is left at the altar on her wedding day with no job, no home and an awful honeymoon on her own. Back home, she takes up living in her family’s dilapidated summer cottage in the Hamptons with a rescued dog and a bad sunburn, awful neighbors and a handyman who is anything but helpful.

The last thing Dante Rivera needs is another woman (he’s already burdened with an aging aunt, a needy cousin and an ex-wife) and this one has more issues than Sports Illustrated. The only problem is, he just can’t walk away from his intensifying attraction.

Then a hurricane threatens the village and the pair find themselves in the dark…and everything will change.

Julia Clemence had loved Simon Mancroft-Martley her entire life, but when she was sixteen and he twenty-one, he had bought a commission and gone to war. He had been gone nearly five years, and on his return an unexpected encounter in the village church convinces Julia that he loves her as she does him.

But Simon has lost an arm in battle, and is determined not to burden her with a crippled husband. Her parents concur with his decision, and she is forbidden to consider him eligible. Julia, by their actions and his, is denied the freedom to accept or decline an offer of love and marriage.

Her stratagems to achieve liberty fail, and she loses hope. But in the parish church that has been her solace, Simon admits the truth of her many arguments, and gives her the freedom to choose her future–with him or without him.

Solomon Greene made a deal with God.

If He’d send him an unattractive woman, he’d marry her on sight and do
what was spiritually right. After all, he needed that kind of wife to
help him escape from his sordid past.

Celeste Martin made a deal with Solomon. She’d be his ugly wife. All she
wanted in return was his name. She was in love with her sister’s fiance
and he would be the only man she’d ever love.

Solomon had no idea that he’d find his wife fascinating. Celeste didn’t
know that one taste from her husband’s lips would have her wanting more.
Yet many strange women were between them.

Could Solomon ever escape from his past?

Could Celeste ever love her husband?

A MOST MADDENING MATE

Nicholas Beauchamp, the Earl of Winslow, was baffled by Margarita’s infernally inconvenient anger.

True, he still visited his mistress, Catherine Alnwick, whenever his fancy dictated. True, he still availed himself of the fabled favors of the ravishing Lady Eleanor Rushton, who certainly never let her marriage vows interfere with her pleasures.

But surely Margarita should be able to see that as his wife she still possessed the best part of him, and be satisfied with the bargain.

Unfortunately, Margarita had so very much to learn about the ways of the world—and even more to teach the imperious earl about the secrets of the heart…

Still unwed at twenty-one, an unconventional high-spirited woman finds her affections sought by a handsome, devilishly charming Earl, who is nicknamed “The Ideal” by the ton–for his combination of wealth and looks. Though at first she fights his advances, slowly she forms a heated alliance with him. But sparring with words soon turns into a succumbing passion…

What do an archaeologist from Back East and a cowboy from the empty corner of Oregon have in common? Not much, except the waterhole that Rock McConnell needs for his cattle and Genny Forsythe must approve. First she has to make sure there are no prehistoric petroglyphs near the site, and that could take months of study. Now Rock isn’t against preserving the past, but his cattle are gettin’ mighty thirsty.

Genny’s youthful dreams were filled with cowboys, tall, lean, laconic, and Levi’d. Rock is all of them rolled into one gorgeous, virile man. Trouble is, she’s had her fill of dominant males, and Rock is about as dominant as they come. Rock knows that delicate, feminine women can’t last in the harsh environment of Owyhee Country, pretty women like Genny, with silvery hair and painted fingernails. But his body sings another tune, one of immediate, demanding hunger for her kisses–and more.

Love will not be denied. Someone’s got to bend, but who, and how much?

Amelia Sinclair has lived all her life with the decorum expected of a 19th century banker’s wife. She remained faithful to a husband who never loved her, raised three children, and turned away the love of a lifetime. Now widowed at the dawn of a new century and facing her second fifty years, she decides she can no longer deny the love that has burned within her for decades. Can she throw away the only life she has ever known in order to find the only life she has ever wanted?

Independent Katie Lachlan has caught the eye and heart of a rich suitor who won’t take no for an answer. Luke Savage killed a man in a gunfight and swears he’ll never carry a handgun again. A strong attraction and mutual dependence link them together for a journey along the brand new transcontinental railroad, as she flees the suitor who stalks her and he runs away from his past. Instead of safety, they find new danger as they are forced to travel on foot across a wintry landscape. While Katie learns that independence is no match for force, Luke discovers that saving Katie is more important to him than the vow he made. Striving together against wilderness, gunfighters bent on retribution, and a frontier town on the brink of riot, they find their strength, their convictions, and their very love tested by adversity and danger.

Presenting a never-before-published, holiday short story from Regency author Edith Layton!

Christmas is coming to Victorian London. A poor boy living with his milliner sister in a marginal part of town discovers his cat is missing. His old dog can’t live without the cat, so he searches—and hears that the Queen has kidnapped his cat! Queen Victoria’s favorite moggie strayed, and her minions scooped up the wrong cat—or so the boy and his sister think.

This Christmas novella tells how an earnest young Beefeater, his world-weary superior, and one of the wiliest criminals in London each try to find the right cat without disturbing the old queen, win the boy’s cat back—and woo the pretty sister—before the Queen leaves London for her Christmas holiday.

From the servants at the palace and the Queen’s own chambers, to Billingsgate and the mudlarks’ favorite taverns, the adventures are many among the high- and low-life of Victorian London.

Phoebe Rackson is determined to help her family’s faltering finances. When she learns of the Soho Bazaar, established specifically to aid the widows and orphans of war casualties, she sees a way. After convincing her widowed mother of the wisdom of her plan to take counter space at the Bazaar, she organizes the entire family and sets up in business.

The Honourable Tobias Wavendon likes the Soho Bazaar. Prohibited from a military career by his family, he takes an interest in helping the families of deceased soldiers. Whenever he can he makes purchases at the Bazaar and his three sisters are among the fashionable clients of the popular establishment.

He finds the goods and the young woman in attendance at one counter of particular interest. The finely crafted needlework provides him with gifts and the detailed wooden carvings intrigue him. The dedicated, determined young lady who operates the stall fascinates him. When his idle brother, heir to their father’s earldom, learns of his interest in that certain stall holder, he decides to make mischief.

Phoebe Rackson is confused. One of her customers, dark-haired and attractive, is reserved, polite and kindly one day and flirtatious, indiscreet and merry the next. The turmoil he causes escalates until she forbids him to visit her stall.

Their mutual attraction, though ill-fated, cannot be denied. Class, pride and fortune stand in their way, and duty becomes a curse.

All of London knows the story of the vanished Lady Charlotte Endicott and the handsome reward that will accompany her safe return. Scores of blond-haired, blue-eyed impostors have tried their luck at Jack Endicott’s casino claiming to be the girl, only to be turned away-but Queenie Dennis just might be the one.

Fate takes a turn when she returns to London posing as a dressmaker fresh from France. Queenie quickly becomes the talk of the town, catching the eye of the handsome Lord Harkness. As her love for him grows, Queenie’s lies begin to catch up with her. Will Harkness call her bluff, or does love hold the winning hand?

Frances Carter, daughter and sister of wreckers, stands a gruesome vigil on the Cornish coast, her only solace memories of her childhood love, Mateo Sandoval. Though Frances’ father has promised her in marriage to Ewan, a greedy government agent, Frances knows she can never give up on the future she and Mateo had planned.

As a child, Mateo Sandoval was powerless when his father insisted the family return to Spain. As a man, he will let nothing stop him from claiming the life and the woman he has always wanted.

When the sea washes Mateo ashore at Frances’ feet the week before her wedding, they know their second chance could be their last. Only love can do the impossible.

Madcap Tomboy…
When the local magistrate jailed Jacelyn Trevaine’s pet dog as a public nuisance, the country miss knew he meant to blackmail her into socializing with his nephew. High-spirited Jacelyn decided to free her dog by kidnapping the precious nephew, but unfortunately she abducted the wrong gentleman! Her captive was none other than handsome Lord Leigh Claibourne–returned war hero and rake extraordinaire. And four hours alone with the libertine Earl was tantamount to social ruin. Of course if she was already ruined, Jacelyn may as well give society something to be scandalized about…

Hardened Womanizer…
Claibourne found country life tiresome and dull … until he was kidnapped by an irrepressible chit whose candor was utterly disarming. Even rakes have their points of honor, however, and when the situation threatened to compromise Jacelyn, the cynical nobleman was forced to give the appearance of being betrothed to her. Claibourne never gave something for nothing. And in the case of the deliciously appealing Jacelyn, he’d hold her reputation hostage…for a rake’s ransom.

HER HEART WAS DIVIDED IN THREE

Jessica Eastwood’s country sweetheart, Tom Preston, wanted her to be the free and independent spirit that her gallant officer father had raised her to be.

Jessica’s irresistibly attractive distant European cousin, Anton Von Keller, wanted to mold her into a sophisticated woman of the world.

Society’s most eligible aristocrat, the dazzling Lord Leith, wanted Jessica to be the star of the London Season, a model of feminine beauty and fashion.

But before Jessica could find out which of these women she truly was, she had to decide which one of these maddeningly desirable men she really loved…

Fantasies aren’t supposed to come true. What happens when they do?

Workaholic, Carrie Marks, leads an uneventful, predictable life. Her weekdays are spent coaxing difficult customers into compliance and sorting out problems. The limited leisure time she has is filled with fantasy videos and dreams of a hero.

Until, on a rain-soaked night, a hero wrenches her from the brink of disaster as she crosses the street. Nick Casey is everything she’s ever dreamed of in her fantasies and nothing like any man she has ever dared to date.

Then her life spins horribly out of control. She’s fired from her job. Her rent check bounces. Her bank account is wiped out. Her credit record is trashed. Nothing makes sense. She is thrust into an escalating nightmare. Someone has stolen her identity.

Carrie doesn’t know whom to trust. Can this stranger who rescued her once help her now? Yet what is his connection to her ex-boss? And how can she resist the hero of her fantasies when his wacky housekeeper, his moonlighting lawyer, his alien nephews, his gorgeous ex-girlfriend and even his skeptical sister all seem to be conspiring to drive them together?

Kirsten needs a new, inexpensive place to live. To see a good possibility, she must talk to a preacher, of all people. He’s the most gorgeous man she’s ever laid eyes on, and the perfect property is more than she ever dreamed. She can ignore the preacher. Besides, a church is the last place she’d ever go, not with her shady past. At first she’s drawn by the church carillon’s music, then by Hope, his toddler daughter with a mind of her own.

His hands full with a needy congregation and single parenthood, the last thing Michael wants is another distraction. Kirsten is too attractive, too…enticing…to a father desperately in need of someone to care for his daughter who won’t spoil her rotten. He is far too aware of her beauty and compassion. She stirs his senses and thaws his frozen heart. Worse yet, he needs someone to help with the church’s youth group, and Kirsten is, after all, a teacher who conveniently lives across the street?

A cantankerous member of the church’s Board has taken Kirsten in extreme dislike. His wife has been babysitting Hope since her birth. Both are furious that out of nowhere Kirsten has supplanted them, and has, in fact, become Hope’s favorite person next to her father. When an ice storm forces Michael and Kirsten into a compromising situation, Hazel and Horace think the worst and do their best to stir up the congregation, as well as drive Kirsten and Michael apart.

Michael and Kirsten are each others’ best hope for a bright, loving future, but the obstacles facing them seem too great to overcome. Can time, prayer–and love–overcome their dilemma?

When his betrothed leaves him stranded at the altar, Lord Galen Woodbridge is more embarrassed than broken-hearted. Desperate to deflect attention from his humiliating plight, he decides to stir up a bit of a scandal — by wedding London’s most eligible and elusive songstress, the magnificently sensuous Margot Montclaire.

After Galen proposes, Margot confides that her sexy demeanor is merely an act. A baron’s daughter, she took to the stage to escape the clutches of a diabolical uncle — and reluctantly left her fragile young brother behind in his care. To win Margot’s hand, Galen agrees to save her sickly sibling — but in this marriage of mutual convenience, he never planned on losing his heart….

It’s time for Annie to put grief behind her and get on with her life. What better way than to go to the State Fair? That innocent first step leads her into a confusing series of events in which she attempts to revive an old love, keep her eighty-year-old cousin out of trouble, finish a quilt left to her by a beloved aunt, and oh, yes, support a new friend suspected of killing her husband. Cousin Sam may be old, but he’s not dead yet. His sudden love affair with a brand-new widow shows Annie that it’s never too late to love, even though it might be safer not to try to relive the past.

The disparate bits of Annie’s life slowly come together, as Magda teaches her how to put pieces of fabric together into a pleasing quilt. While she watches Sam and Magda fall in love, she finds herself wondering if she might find a future with Dan, a handsome fireman. But before she can look too far ahead, there’s the quilt show to get through. And that’s a whole different complication.

Meredith agreed to marry Quinn McAllister if he would promise that theirs would be a childless marriage. They were made for each other, having come from similar unstable backgrounds and pulled themselves up by their own ambition and determination.

Five days after their wedding, Quinn learns that his best friend, his “brother” from Boys Town, is dead, leaving his three young children orphaned. Years ago Quinn promised to care for the children if anything happened. Now he is faced with keeping his vow. But what about his promise to his wife, that theirs would be a childless marriage?

Meredith has a secret, one she fears could doom her marriage if she ever reveals it. The choice is hers: her secret or her marriage? She must take the orphans into her home, despite her conviction that she will be a terrible mother to them.

Love may not be enough to save their marriage when one promise must be broken if another is kept.

Seeking to fill a heart left empty by the death of her fiancé, Madeline Pierson conceived twins by artificial insemination. She needed something–someone?–to make life worth living. One foolish night with Erik Soloman brought her both healing and guilt, so she did her best to forget him. Eight years later they meet again, to discover that time has not lessened the fiery attraction between them. When Erik encounters Madeline’s son, he sees his own face–the twins must be his. Now Madeline is forced to face her feelings about him–how closely is she willing to let him share in her children’s lives? Does Erik, who has never really had–or wanted–a home, have the staying power to be the man she needs? And will he?

Regally beautiful, Lady Alexandra Wilton has refused to wed without love. She will not compromise—until her father dies and his shocking will reveals that Alexandra will lose everything unless she marries his heir. Much to everyone’s surprise, the next earl is an upstart, a fiery Highlander just as outraged at the prospect of wedding a frosty Englishwoman as Alexandra is at the very idea of bedding him. But for this romantic lady, the unexpected is about to happen, an explosive meeting of two strong-willed forces that will change everything she believes about desire and her own heart.

Sixteen-year-old Merlin Lachlan dreams of knight errantry, but with only one eye, doubts he’ll ever be more than a squire–a knight-in-training. He soon has the opportunity to play the hero when he befriends Calista Smith, a girl-child traveling alone to her father in Montana.

Eight years later Merlin receives a telegram from Callie, a cry for help. Her father is taking her to an unknown destination, possibly to a fate worse than death. Abandoned at the depot in Cheyenne, along and virtually penniless, Callie finds work. When Merlin arrives he finds not a damsel in distress but a woman standing on her own two feet. Still, she is Callie, and he has a tender memory of her. As she has of him.

Merlin weds Callie to ensure that her father will have no more control over her fate. Thwarted, Lem Smith seeks revenge and ends their brief idyll with fire and blood and terror. Afterward Merlin has no memory of her, beyond what his friends tell him. Callie is captive and helpless. Each believes the other dead.

Time heals most wounds, but not broken hearts. Callie escapes from her father and builds a life for herself. Merlin returns home, all of his youthful dreams shattered. Until a child’s smile awakens old memories, and a family calls to its own.

IN THE GLAMOROUS WORLD OF THE THEATER, THEY WERE GIFTED, HOPEFUL, AND HUNGRY FOR FAME…

KATHY, whose brilliant performances rose like fire from her soul; LAUREN, regal, golden-voiced, fleeing a desperate past; MELANIE, sophisticated and sexy, prey to every temptation; DAVID, driven by pride and passion; PAULA, searching for love, afraid of success, hoarding her talent like a hidden treasure; MIKE, slipping from mask to mask, the stage his only home…

Together they shared the magic of rehearsals and opening nights, of love and heartache and grand ambition…bursting from the safe cocoon of the college drama club to struggle, suddenly alone, for the spotlight. For two decades, from New York to London to L.A., they held on to their dreams, playing the starving actor or flying high on movie deals and cocaine, marrying rich or making fortunes, far from the bright lights. But only one would soar to the heights, swept away by the thunderous applause, the magical glow, the love of millions of fans…at last a STAR.

Electra Hamilton is expecting to welcome a lover. What she gets is his annoying, nerdy brother. The man has always made her uncomfortable, always disapproved of her and, frankly, drives her stark-staring crazy. Yet all her friends seem to think he is perfect husband material.

Drew Bolinger knows that courting the woman he has secretly loved for years will be his toughest challenge yet. She thinks he’s an interfering know-it-all. She also happens to be his brother’s best friend. But when the sleepy town of Little Creek becomes a hotbed of intrigue and murder, Drew not only has to fight hard to keep a skeptical Electra safe, but convince her, at the same time, that he is her true hero.

Chris was a struggling actor and Mary a struggling scholar, but their marriage was a perfect, passionate union—until the glitter of Hollywood and a dazzling starlet stole Chris away. At the time when she needed him most, he betrayed and failed her, and she swore never to see him again. Chris became a world-famous actor, and Mary a respected professor, and only in the darkness of the movie theater did she allow herself to think of him. Then, in the flash and glare of reporters’ cameras, they met again, and the smoldering love reignited. They had never officially divorced. Had he come back to reestablish their marriage…or end it irrevocably?

Miss Eliza Merriman knew how difficult it would be to capture Julian Dylan. For Julian was the handsomest lord in England, a prize women would and did do anything to win. Somehow Eliza had to be more dazzling than her captivating cousin Constance, aristocratic society’s most celebrated beauty. She had to be more endearing than her friend Anthea, who was everything that a man could seek in a wife. And she had to weave a sensual spell stronger than that of the ladies of pleasure who swarmed around Julian like bees around honey.

Strikingly beautiful young Julia Hastings had been an inexperienced innocent when handsome, high-born Robin Marlowe induced her to elope with him—only to abandon her on their wedding night without a word of explanation.

Julia was left with her virtue intact but her reputation in tatters. Her life became a struggle to defend herself against gentlemen who henceforth considered her easy prey.

By now, Julia knew better than to trust any man, even when that man was the overwhelmingly attractive Lord Nicholas Daventry, Robin’s own uncle. But if Julia had learned how dangerous blissful ignorance was in matters of the heart, she had yet to discover what folly it was to be too wise…

Young and lovely Tracy Bodmin was as spirited and independent as the America she came from—but love for her father made her yield to his heart’s desire. Though William Bodmin had made his fortune in the New World, he dreamed of a title for his daughter in his native England—and his wealth won a marriage proposal to Tracy from the proud Duke of Hastings.

Thus it was that Tracy voyaged full-sail into the world of the aristocracy as wife to one of its most splendid lords. Behind she left Adam Lancaster, the handsome, rugged New Englander who adored her. Ahead lay fear and danger in the arms of a powerful, magnetic man whose mode of life and love she did not know…

When the Earl of Althorpe dies, his daughter Julia is horrified to learn that the new earl is an American. Her father has left their estate, Stoverton, burdened with enormous debt and the only good news about the new earl is that he’s a millionaire. Julia’s hope is that he will bail out the estate and go back home to America, leaving her to run Stoverton, as she always has.

Evan Marshall, the new earl, has no use for the British and certainly does not want to be an English earl. However, he finds not only has he inherited enormous debts, but he is now the guardian of two girls—Julia and her younger sister Maria.

On the advice of his aunt, he agrees to give Julia a London Season so she can catch a husband and take care of Maria. Then he’ll be able to go home to America, where he belongs.

Nothing goes according to either of these very determined people’s plans.

When Eve Dixon decides to make her own way in a man’s world, she doesn’t count on having to do it disguised as a young man. When James Quinton, misogynistic entrepreneur, hires a secretary, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to hi… her.

Once employed, Eve finds herself discovering that her taciturn, solemn employer is a charming, likable fellow, one she could easily fall in love with—if she were a woman. To further complicate her life, Quinton’s younger sister develops a tendre for her brother’s handsome secretary. Now Eve is caught in a tangle of her own devising. When her deception is revealed, Quinton is outraged—and intrigued. The outrage wins, and Eve’s future extends barren before her, with only memories of love in her heart. Will Quinton, who sees her as one more treacherous woman in his life, find forgiveness possible?

Miss Kate Thacker is bright, beautiful, and working in a London office to help support her young brother. When her holiday bonus comes in the form of a giant turkey, Miss Kate needs to figure out how to sell a bird—and it sets in motion a drama, and a romance. Originally published in the Signet collection A Victorian Christmas, this quick holiday romp by a masterful romance author delivers all the joys of the season.

Miss Catherine Robins took a position as companion to the Dowager Duchess of Crewe, little suspecting what kind of strait she would find herself in. For the not-so-good Duchess expected her hired companions not to please her, but to please the gentlemen she adored having swarm around her.

By the time the Duchess forced Catherine to come with her to a Paris filled with shocking amours and sinister intrigues, Catherine was painfully aware that her reputation and virtue were both in fearful danger. And when the infinitely attractive and thoroughly notorious Marquis of Bessacarr picked Catherine to be his paid plaything, her risks were compounded. This proper young lady in peril had to fight not only the Marquis’ audacious advances but her own unsettling responses if she hoped to prove that all her love was more precious than all his gold…

Silas Dewitt, newly arrived in an Idaho gold camp, saves two Chinese boys from a mob of drunken miners. But one of them turns out to an independent, stubborn, lovely woman who decides her role is to protect him.

Soomey, shaped by poverty and sexual slavery, sees Silas as her means to freedom and independence—until she falls in love with him. Knowing that she is assisting in her own heartbreak, she guards his back as he searches for a cache of gold nuggets.

A vicious killer stalks them both, hating Soomey for her race, Silas for his wealth. Silas faces him in a desperate knife battle, but is too late to save Soomey from painful torture. Scarred in body and soul, Soomey tries to leave him. Can Silas holds her with passion, tenderness, and a promise of eternal love?

Garret Kenning, the Earl of Therneforde, strives daily to conceal the strange secret that had plagued his family for generations. His home, Kenning Old Manor, is dominated by the last remnant of Kenning Castle–the Red Tower. The Tower has the strange capacity to transport people across time, and the constant possibility of peculiar arrivals encroaches on his freedom and his choices. Despite this worry, his life is ordered in comfortable lines with his aunt Lady Margery Kenning as his housekeeper, and his good friend and steward John Debray to support him.

As Therneforde begins to plan his future around marriage to a suitable spinster of his village, the arrival of a traveller from a distant past upsets all his arrangements. He is required, in the following weeks, to reexamine all his beliefs from his opinions of women to his life’s most important choices.

Ysmay of Scarsfield’s medieval world has changed with a single step. That one stride across the threshold of the Red Tower takes her to a new life, a new family and a new future in a world that is eerily familiar yet distressingly alien. New freedoms beckon, and she is reprieved from a difficult destiny. However, the challenges of adjustment may be too great and her hard-won peace is threatened by a suspicious newcomer to the village.

Reconciling the past and the present and confronting the future present huge obstacles to both Ysmay and Garret. As their world, and the people around them change, they will both require courage and tolerance, and their strength may lie in unity.

There once was a king’s reign when England’s fate was forever decided, when the Danes swooped in to conquer, and one splendid ruler stood between savagery and a glorious new dawn. The Edge of Light is the magnificent tale of those faraway times, of that monarch, Alfred the Great, and of the woman he could not help but love…

The beautiful Elswyth, Princess of Mercia, is a woman-child already promised to a lord of the realm. Young Prince Alfred, fifth son of King Ethelwulf of Wessex, never dreamed he would don the crown of Britain, though he was destined to become its greatest king. Two headstrong lovers vow to fight to change the world rather than forfeit their passion—in a grand and glorious saga that explodes with the passions of love and war.

Note: This book is an updated version of the author’s novel Royal Bride.

One of the last acts performed by the post–Waterloo Congress of Vienna is the granting to Jura the status of a free and independent state. To safeguard against domination by its giant neighbor, Austria, Prince Augustus allies himself to Britain by taking an English wife. That wife was supposed to be the eldest granddaughter of Princess Mariana, but when she runs away with someone else, the youngest daughter, Charity, is pressed into service as a substitute.

Charity has always hero-worshipped Gus, who has spent the last ten years leading guerilla fighters against Napoleon’s troops, but she is not prepared for the responsibility of her new position. The novel is about the growing love between Charity and Gus, as together they encounter political intrigues and dangerous plots against Jura and the rule of Prince Augustus.

The kiss was as nothing she’d ever known…the warmth and sweetness of his mouth was so new to her…

Beautiful young Mary Monk was trembling when she surrendered her innocence to dashing Cavalier nobleman Gideon Hawkes to save herself from the destitution the Great Fire of London had assured. Gideon took her on a whim, to satisfy a fleeting desire. Yet what began as a coupling of a jaded man’s lust and a desperate girl’s need soon turned into something far stronger and deeper. Gideon had the power and the purpose to make Mary blossom as a woman, with a woman’s passions and a woman’s fulfillment. And in Mary, Gideon discovered something he had never known, even with the most dazzling ladies and captivating courtesan who frequented the lavish and licentious courts of Europe. For what he had set aflame in Mary and what she returned to him a hundredfold—was love…

It’s not that I approve of blackmail, but sometimes survival takes precedence over virtue. Unfortunately, the Earl of Winterdale has not proved to be quite the sort of victim I had envisioned. To be honest, I find that my heart is in far more danger from the handsome earl than he is endangered by my nefarious schemes.

All I ever wanted was a home for my sister and me, but I fear Winterdale is about to exact a price of his own, one I’m not ready to pay. Or am I? Where he is concerned, I’m far too vulnerable.

Damn.

Georgiana (Georgie) Newbury

Francesca Wyndham knew the folly of gambling. She had seen her father, Lord Wyndham, lose the family fortune, forcing her to become a plain chaperone to an empty-headed young Miss.

But now Francesca was taking a gamble even her father would have blanched at. She was falling in love with the irresistible Arden Lyons, a gentleman who was clearly anything but a gentleman when it came to winning what he wanted, whether a hand of cards, a test of strength, or a lady’s favors.

She knew nothing about this man except that she wanted him from the moment she saw him…and though his past was a dark mystery, his motives for choosing her over other seductive or wealthy young beauties were even more mysterious. Still, Francesca dared to pit her innocence against Arden’s expertise—in a game where passion took all….

Time travel is impossible. It calls into question everything that governess Avice Palsham knows about the natural world and believes about the mystical universe.

Nevertheless, when she and her young orphaned charge, Jacob Milden, experience a profound change in their circumstances in the Red Tower of Kenning Old Manor, time travel is the only explanation. They were somehow undeniably transported from their Victorian world of 1865 to the Regency era, fifty years earlier.

The first person they encounter in their changed world is Kendall Marbury, an unsympathetic and suspicious economist accustomed to dealing in facts and figures, who is staying at his cousin’s Manor. At first he scoffs at the idea of time travel, but Kendall is nothing if not pragmatic. What is, is, and if they must all accept the fact of time travel, then they must.

For Avice, the idea of being transplanted into the world of the Regency, which 1865 calls decadent and immoral, is repugnant. Though her life in Victorian London is less than ideal, she mourns the loss of gaslight, photography, steam travel, telegraphy and lawfulness. She feels she is out of place and she tries everything to return to her own era. Her sense of duty to the little boy in her care is part of her desire to return to 1865. He cannot understand their strange journey, and he cannot make for himself the momentous decision to stay in 1815.

Together Avice and Kendall must come to terms with the transference in time of Avice and her charge, and their growing attraction to each other. If Avice succeeds in engineering a return to 1865, she–and Jacob–will be where they belong. But will they be happy?

Librarian Livvy Swenson lives by her notebook planner, organizing her life to the nth degree. When she decides her biological clock requires that she now get married, Livvy sets about the task with a list of what she requires in a husband. 

But she’s forgotten one requirement–what the Ladies’ Prayer Circle of Ophelia, Texas, calls “zing.” Miss Daisy Hemphill and her friends pray for the right man for Livvy, but their prayers are answered by bartender Tex Braun.

Livvy is attracted to Tex but is positive he can’t possibly meet her intellectual requirements.

Multi-millionaire Tex Braun is in hiding incognito as a roadhouse bartender to escape a high society gold-digger who wants to hook him. Tex doesn’t realize it, but moving in the social circle of the roadhouse opens his eyes to the kind of woman he really wants to spend his life with–one exactly like Livvy Swenson. He’s making progress convincing Livvy that he can be all she needs in a man when his ex-fiancee tracks him down and announces to everyone in the bar — including Livvy–that she’s pregnant.

Tex is caught in the middle of a mess he had never imagined in his wildest dreams. And caught with him is the woman he loves. Winning Livvy back will be one heck of a lot harder than fixin’ drinks behind the bar in his Gucci loafers.

The Ladies Prayer Circle of Ophelia, Texas, has undertaken the task of seeing that Hannah Murphy gets married. But when a bad-boy biker in leather and skin-tight jeans rolls into town, will stubborn Hannah be the first to ruin the Prayer Circle’s long string of successes?

Texas rancher Winnie Davis had a husband and doesn’t want another one. She keeps men at arm’s length with wolf whistles, dragging them to the dance floor, and calling out her appreciation of the “stock.” But her sassy behavior is only a wall to keep men away and protect the secret she has kept from everyone, even her very best friends. Winnie’s great aunt, Miss Daisy Hemphill and the ladies of the Ophelia, Texas, Prayer Circle seek heavenly assistance in finding husbands for the town’s single women. When they take on Winnie’s case, she’s not glad for the attention.

Ophelia’s new doctor, Will Barker, is fascinated by the sexy lady rancher, and intrigued by her brash sassiness. He’s not looking for anything permanent while he establishes himself in his new hometown, but Winnie’s charms are too much to ignore.

To send the Prayer Circle ladies on to another victim, Winnie agrees to Will’s plan for a pretend romance…until it becomes more.

Gentle Reader:

My husband is dead and my four-year-old son is the new Earl of Weston. Perhaps even more catastrophic, however, is the news that my husband named his brother, Stephen, the guardian of Giles and of all the immense Grandville estate.

Five years ago, Stephen was banished to Jamaica and now he is coming home. Once the thought of Stephen coming home to me was all I wanted out of life. But not anymore. I have made my life without him. I have my son, my horses, my home.

There are some things that are unforgivable, as Stephen will find out if he thinks he can take up where he left off with me.

My fondest regards,
Annabelle Grandville

Is a deception ever harmless? Can dishonesty ever be justified? Tansy Evens thinks so, as does milliner Grace Whitton. The scheme they propose will harm no one and will provide them with a basis for introduction to the high society of London. Their deception will afford well-born Grace an opportunity to take her rightful place, if only briefly, and it will supply Tansy with a brief, dazzling season. To Tansy’s brother Rufus, the Baron Evenswood, it offers nothing at all. However, he is convinced to take part against his better judgement. But their plan does not allow for the complications created by new friends, new loves, and old family connections. No deception can take place without harm to someone. And this one may have grave consequences for all.

What is it like to be the richest woman in the kingdom? For Emma Lambert, a wealthy widow who married to save her family from poverty, it means nothing if she can’t have the man she has always loved.

Michael Hayden, fourth son of an earl, has been badly injured in the war. When he returns home, he finds a family tragedy has made him the earl—and he is now a desirable catch on the marriage mart. Can Emma reawaken his heart, or has she lost the one great love of her life forever?

In the lush green valleys of southern France, long before the mists of time, as humankind takes its first defiant steps to tame the earth, one special tribe among the Kindred is ruled by the Priestess Arika. But a feared change is coming, for the distant thunder of hooves brings terrifying whispers of a fierce race of conquerors whose astonishing horsemanship gives them the power of conquest…a power that threatens to enslave Kindred women, murder their men, burn their villages.

It is left to the exiled Ronan, Arika’s handsome young son, to meet this challenge. But first he must reunite with his true love, Nel, whose charisma and magical talents with animals may help him master the wild horse. And as the young lovers and their band of loyal renegades race to stem the invaders’ relentless advance, the grasslands quake with the sound of battle to determine the Kindreds’ destiny. Against the lush backdrop of a vanished primeval world, this spellbinding novel tells the timeless tale of adventure and conflict, rivalry and revenge, love and passion.

Coryn, Earl of Ardeth, has spent an eternity in Hell. Fed up, he gambles with the Devil and wins a second chance: if he can find his heart, his soul, and his hourglass in six months, he can return to life. Then he meets Genie, a disgraced water-girl at the Battle of Waterloo. Now, her only hope is this crazy stranger-and she’s half-terrified of and half-in-love with the eccentric earl. Together they have to find his humanity, her social acceptance, and overcome someone bent on destroying their lives.

Tony Dewitt, his reputation in tatters, is hired to install a newfangled telephone system in Hailey, Idaho. Racial prejudice is rampant, so Tony, who is Chinese, passing as white, conceals his ancestry.

Lulu King is of mixed race and proud of it. Having seen firsthand what misery bigotry can cause, she has devoted her life to the campaigns for women’s suffrage and equal rights for all.

They were childhood friends, but conflicting goals drove them apart. Now fate has brought them to the same small town and the old attraction is difficult to deny.

Sabotage to the telephone system and a wave of Anti-Chinese hysteria threaten Tony’s career and Lulu’s convictions. The consequences of their one night of love shadow their future. How long before their very lives are endangered?

Miss Faith Hamilton was sent from America to England to find a proper husband among the cream of the upper-class crop. But the beautiful Miss Hamilton had her own notion of what she sought; freedom from the wants and whims of any man, and from the enslavement that amorous enticement would surely breed.

For Lord Barnabas Deal, society’s most renowned rake, Faith was a quarry he could not resist. For the elegant and witty Earl of Methley, whose mountain of debts was as towering as his august title, the American heiress was the ideal answer to both his financial and physical needs.

Never was a young lady courted by two such seductive suitors—and never was a young lady so determined not to surrender…

When nineteen-year-old Raquel McKnight’s car is stolen from the mall parking deck on Christmas Eve, she is sure that her family’s jingle bell jinx has struck again. And then she runs into her eighth-grade beau Gabriel McKnight. Although his kisses say he never got over her, she can’t help but wonder if he’s somehow part of the jinx. Has the holiday hex finally come to an end? Or will she add a broken heart to a long list of Christmas calamity?

Previously published individually, these four great novellas are collected in one book for the first time!

“The Legacy”—Valerian Blackwood is summoned to his aged uncle’s country estate to help the old man settle a problem with his heir. What Valerian finds is a mystery—and the love of his life. He only has to decide which is more important to him: solving the mystery or winning his lady.

“Buried Treasure”—What is Hannah Jenkins to make of the wildly attractive silver-tongued man villagers bring to her family’s house after he is found injured on the shore near her seacoast home? He says he was the victim of pirates. But who is the pirate, and who is the prey?

“Something Blue”—June Heywood’s coming wedding day is clouded by a vicious remark she overhears, causing her to wonder why the handsome and clever Lawrence, Lord Morrow, ever asked for her hand. Who should she believe? Gossip or her heart?

“A Marriage of True Minds”—The bride’s sister and the groom’s brother, alike in temper, lock horns—all the while missing what their relatives can so plainly see.

In all his wanderings, Buffalo Lachlan has only once before seen eyes winter-sky blue like Siri Trogen’s. He promised a dying man he’d find a lost twin, and he’s been following nebulous clues and vague rumors halfway around the world ever since. His search leads him to Astoria, Oregon, the cold, rainy winter of 1873.

Could Siri be the lost sister, heiress to a barony? Before Buff can find proof, he becomes caught up in her hunt for her stolen children. Inexplicable accidents and unexplained disasters complicate their efforts. Is someone trying to prevent Siri from finding her children, or him from finding the missing heiress?

Shared danger drives them into each other’s arms. Shared adventure teaches them that they each have a streak of recklessness, a core of courage, and a heart full of love to share. But before they can make any decisions about the future, they have to find Siri’s children, prove she’s the lost baroness…and stay alive.

When Daniel Dereham makes his first appearance in London, it doesn’t take long for English aristocratic tongues to wag with curiosity. Who is this rich, gorgeous mystery man?

Lady Anne Sexton needs a wealthy husband to hold onto the Grex estate and restore it to its former glory. If marrying Dereham allows her to stay in her home, then she’ll do what she needs to do.

Is it a business arrangement…or potentially the start of something more?

THE EXQUISITE PRETENDER

In dress, manner, and speech, Miss Elizabeth DeLisle seemed every inch a leisured lady. No one could guess she had been forced to take a position in trade—or that she had come to the Earl of Auden’s estate to entice him into naming her dismayingly disagreeable cousin Anthony heir to a fortune that she then could share.

But Elizabeth had stiff competition for the Earl’s imperious favor…from the schemingly seductive Lady Isabel Courtney and her odious little boy, Owen…from the implacably upright Richard Courtney and his unfortunate honesty…and from the memory of the Earl’s first wife, who had made him despise women who deceived.

Elizabeth knew she could never reveal the truth to the Earl—even when she forgot about gaining his fortune and began losing her heart….

Kat Tremaine is cursed. After crushing a phoenix egg on expedition to Egypt, she now goes up in flames each equinox and solstice, only to rise from the ashes in a new body. This limits her relationships to one-night stands since no guy could ever explain her if the two of them accidentally fell in love.

Along comes Jase Cooper, a doctor with the schedule from Hades. Their chemistry is undeniable, but she keeps her secret. As the seasons–and her appearance–change, she is drawn to him again and again even though she knows better. Is it love? For her, yes. As for Jase…how can it be, when he thinks he’s with a different woman every time?

What she doesn’t know is that Jase is special, too. And his connection to Mount Olympus just might help them end the curse.

Isabel Besson’s father owns a French Equestrian Circus in which she grew up, touring throughout France and performing with her brilliant horse, Alonzo. In the audience at a performance in London is Leo Sommers, Earl of Camden, who is stunned when he sees in Isabel the replica of his famous great-grandmother, whose portrait hangs in his drawing room.

This is no coincidence, as it soon comes to light that Isabel had been kidnapped as an infant and adopted by “Papa” and his wife when an English woman attempted to sell them the baby.

Isabel isn’t interested in meeting her natural family, but when she learns that her birth father, the Earl of Mansfield, has left her a great deal of money, Isabel sees a means for her Papa to retire from circus life, and she heads for a summer at Camden Hall to prove her right to the inheritance.

Camden Hall is one of England’s Great Houses, and everything about it feels alien to Isabel. She misses her Papa, the circus, France…everything from the life she knows. She does not like her new relatives: Lady Augusta, Leo’s elderly aunt who is always correcting her; Leo’s cousin Roger, who calls her “circus girl” and undresses her with his eyes; her own brother Henry, Earl of Mansfield, who doesn’t want to surrender their father’s money to her.

There is one person at Camden Hall who Isabel comes to love…the Earl of Camden—and Leo feels the same about her.

Which will win out…love, or money?

Even in the Regency, marketing plans were useful, especially when parents were seeking to marry a daughter advantageously. Lord and Lady Curran expect their daughter’s portrait to convince potential suitors of her beauty, her worth and her desirability. Of course, it must also show her as a perfect, obedient, demure lady.

Kermit Sutherland is a popular portraitist, so of course he is engaged to produce the portrait. What Chastity’s parents don’t understand is that Sutherland paints more than the surface. He has a knack for seeing into a woman’s heart and soul.

Under her obedient façade, Chastity harbors a rebellious heart, and Sutherland sees it and encourages it. When her portrait is finished, it might show more than her parents–or she–have bargained for.

Lady Susan and Lord James Haythe, twin siblings of the Earl of Cheriton, have always been unpredictable. Intelligent, attractive and easily bored, they find their privileged life in the heart of the beau mode unfulfilling. For three years they have supplemented their unsatisfactory daily round of balls, plays and conventional entertainments with mischief, trickery and decidedly unconventional activities.

When they announce in the summer of 1820 that they wish to undertake a journey of exploration by coach around the northern counties of England, their family waves them off with relief. Surely such a trip will satisfy the twins’ need for novelty, and offer no opportunity for disorder.

The novelty of concealing their aristocratic heritage with plain clothes and simple living soon wears off. But Susan and James discover by chance a failing theatre near Sheffield, and set about ‘saving’ it.

What begins as a lark soon becomes very serious as Susan and James recognize they are playing with people’s lives and futures. They offer hard work and good ideas but also trickery, and they realize the partners in the theatre, care-worn Badgworthy and the enigmatic Redwick deserve better. Redwick, who harbours his own secrets, finds Susan irresistible. And he is determined to discover the twins’ identity.

The twins’ futures are threatened by the difficulty of unraveling their lies. If society learns of their performances on the stage, they will be plunged into disgrace. When exposure of their masquerade looms, the possibility of scandal turns their adventure into a discreditable exploit.

Gentle Reader:

At the time it seemed like a good idea. Reeve and I had been friends since childhood, so when he needed to persuade his trustee to turn over his inheritance, we decided to pretend to get engaged. Reeve was the Earl of Cambridge, after all. It wasn’t fair for him not to have his money.

Who would have thought that Lord Bradford would insist we actually marry before he handed over the dibs? Who would have thought that my feelings for Reeve would change so radically, that I would want him as a lover as well as a friend? And who would have thought that someone would be trying to kill me before I even made it to the altar?

—- Deborah Woodly

Though Maggie Redmond expects to get a wannabe jack o’ lantern when she drives her twin brothers to The Pumpkin Patch, she actually winds up with more. Brendon Fletcher, handsome grandson of the owner, can’t take his eyes off her. Naturally she’s thrilled when he calls her later, asking if he can tag along while she takes the boys trick or treating. Can this be true love? Maybe…but only if they survive the plans a nefarious black cat has for them.

When newly widowed Hattie Rommel chooses a second husband, she doesn’t expect him to fulfill her most secret dreams. She just wants him to take her to Oregon.

Emmet Lachlan marries Hattie with the understanding that he will be free to leave her behind, once she is safely in Oregon. He is a wandering man, not a settling-down farmer. Then an old trapper bequeaths them a map to a valley where gold lies on the ground for the taking.

While Emmet and Hattie gather the gold, they also discover each other. Even lost in love’s magic, they both know it cannot last. When they run afoul of murderous renegades, they must flee across untamed mountains to the hidden valley Hattie calls Cherry Vale. In the home she’s always longed for, Emmet discovers a peace he’s never sought. The end of summer means they must resume their interrupted journey. Can Hattie leave the only place that’s ever felt like home? And if she does, will Emmet give up looking for what’s on the far side of the hill?

Lovely British aristocrat Lady Barbara Carr is wed to the wealthy Virginian Alan Maxwell in order to pay her father’s debts and finds herself torn between conflicting loyalties during the turmoil of the American Revolution. What does a new English wife do when her American husband joins the uprising against her country?

CATRIONA WAS NO STRANGER TO SCANDAL—BUT SHE WAS AN INNOCENT IN LOVE

Only a girl as captivating as Catriona MacIan could have overcome the scandal of her birth to shine as the most sought-after young lady of the London Season.

Only a girl as daring as Catriona would have played with the fiery attentions of suitors as different as the eminently eligible, handsome and proper Lord Wareham and the notoriously worldly and wicked Marquis of Hampton.

Only a girl as stubborn as Catriona would have persisted in adoring the one man she could not have—the brilliant and iron-willed Duke of Burford, the guardian who saw her every fault and was so blind to all else…

England in the early 19th century: a place of extraordinary happenings. War on the continent and political upheavals at home buffeted the lives of ordinary people, while arts and literature flourished under the Prince Regent and a glittering group of aristocrats led high society. It was a period of tumultuous change.

The twelve short stories in this book follow fictional Regency characters facing the challenges of everyday life while brushing up against momentous historical events. Young Miss Phoebe Churcham is unwittingly caught up in the assassination of the prime minister. The publication of a literary classic causes problems for Sir Aubrey Granthorpe. Imogen Rush, Dowager Marchioness of Lavington, visits with an old friend–the Regent’s mistress. The tragic death of a princess touches the Newick family as it does the entire nation. And one day, foppish Postumus Enderby is inspired to take radical steps after reading the morning news. These stories and others will draw you into the private lives and wider world of Regency England.

Charming costume illustrations by Shakoriel bring colour to these heroes and heroines, embellishing all twelve of Lesley-Anne McLeod’s stories. The Regency Storybook is a collection of lives, loves, and histories–of a time two hundred years ago, but as vivid as yesterday.

For generations, as dawn touched the River of Gold and light hit the fertile valleys of southern France, the young men of the Kindred and the Norakamo tribes raided each other’s horse herds. But when a full-blown war threatened both tribes’ very existence, a taboo-breaking alliance was forged to survive this common enemy. To seal it, Alane, the Norakamo chief’s daughter, was promised in marriage to Nardo, the Kindred chief’s son.

Though they worship the same god, their ways are very different—especially for the proud and beautiful Alane, who fights against her forced union with Nardo. But she soon discovers that she can no longer resist the yearnings of her heart for this extraordinary man. And now Alane and Nardo must struggle to rally their people to defend their lands as they, too, must confront their own intense conflicts, ambitions and desires. For if their marriage cannot last, neither will their tribes…

The Reluctant Earl is the story of Claire and Simon, who desperately want to get married, despite all the obstacles that stand in their way. Their biggest hurdle is the fact that Simon is the son and heir of the Earl of Welbourne, while Claire is the daughter of the earl’s Irish horse trainer. The youngsters are keenly aware that their parents would violently oppose such an unequal union—which is precisely why they never confide in those parents.

Then there is Simon’s father, who, for reasons Simon has never understood, clearly hates his son. Then there is the mystery of Simon’s mother’s death, and the fact that he has never met a single member of her family. Then a miracle happens—Simon learns about a trust fund left to him in his mother’s marriage settlement.

Once the money is in his pocket, Simon and Claire decide to elope…and the simmering pot that is Welbourne Abbey and its inhabitants explodes.

Laura’s situation is dire. She and her little daughter are being evicted from their home. Her husband has committed suicide and her house is now the property of the next male heir. When her godmother offers her a position at Chiltern Hall, Laura leaps at the chance. The new Earl of Chiltern is representing England at the Congress of Vienna, and his home and his nieces cannot be left to the care of the servants.

Laura accepts the position of chatelaine at Chiltern Hall. She loves the house and the children, and she becomes fond of the estate steward, the gorgeous Mark Kingston. Then the earl comes home. And Laura falls in love. How can she remain at Chiltern Hall feeling the way she does?

Shimmering with pageantry, emotion and the court’s passionate intrigues, here is the epic story of Arthur—the conqueror, the once and future king, who vanquished the Saxons and loved but one woman, the beautiful Morgan of Avalon. She was the lover his country forbade him to wed but could never keep him from desiring. Held captive by deep feelings, the two dream of one future together…until fate sweeps them into a world where love is balanced on the knife’s edge of danger. Never before has the telling of the story of Arthur made the drama of this charismatic king more real or more moving. Here, a legend and a tale so vigorous with heroic deed and conflict, so glowing with wondrous love, are brought close enough for us to experience all the unforgettable emotions of Avalon…and all the magical moments of Camelot…

He’s a master of disguises… but he can’t mask true love.

Spymaster Harry Harmon’s new assignment is to spy on enemies at a country house party. To do that, he’ll require a courtesan: learned, truthful, and beautiful…

Poor, sensible, smart Simone Ryland has come to Mrs. Burton’s bawdy house in search of work. But instead, she finds Harmon in need of her special skills.

In fairy tales, the princess always gets the prince. Or does she?

When Max Anderson reluctantly responds to Samantha Hogan’s distress call one morning, he is convinced trouble is brewing. An investor in her business and a long-time friend, Max finds himself strangely and unexpectedly attracted to Sam’s latest hedgehog-hair-forest-nymph appearance. Before he knows it, he’s dragged into trying solve the strange happenings at The Seven Dwarves, preserving his body parts from surprise attacks by her dog, and competing with Sam’s newly acquired boyfriend, the heir to a local winery. The hardest part seems to be convincing Sam that he’s not Grumpy, the dwarf, but a candidate for her lover and her heart.

Sam is distracted and confused by the growing strength of the feelings Max arouses in her. Why don’t her boyfriend’s kisses make her break out in goose bumps the way Max’s dark gaze does? He’s interfering with her investigation, interfering with her relationship with her perfect boyfriend and definitely interfering with her heart. Her dog wants to bite him, her neighbor wants to disembowel him and she somehow keeps ending up in bed with him, despite her conviction and the evidence of years that he will never make the commitment she craves. A fairy tale princess never had so tough a choice.

Her father’s ill-fated ventures land Dulcie Dawn Blessing in London’s notorious debtor’s prison. In a desperate scheme to win her freedom, she consents to marry a stranger…for a day. Down on his luck but ever a gentleman, Crispin West agrees to oblige a lady in need, even if it means playing the groom in a mock wedding. But flustered by the unexpected loveliness of his “bride,” Crispin signs the marriage certificate with his true name, Viscount West of Darnley Hall.

Then Crispin’s fortunes are miraculously recovered, allowing him to proceed with his plan to marry Society’s darling, Lady Charlotte Barrington. But the very night he is to ask for her hand, Dulcie appears at his doorstep. Their marriage certificate, legally binding with Crispin’s signature, has disappeared and may have already fallen into the hands of rogues intent on mischief—or worse.

The lies are undeniable…but the truth is harder to see…

Daniel Stamfield has become invaluable to the British Army for his ability to detect the truth from the enemy’s lies. After years of service, Daniel finally takes a respite for some wine, wenches, and wagering. Unfortunately, he didn’t bet on the lovely Miss Corisande Abbott and her unsavory reputation to swagger back into his life.

But as time passes, Daniel realizes he wants to make an honest woman of Corey…and an honest man of himself.

Mourning the death from consumption of her young sister, Fanny, Lady Jean Conway goes home to the Brecon dower house to be comforted by her former governess, Miss Bluestone. Rescued from a flood by Lord Clanross’s Scots steward James Sholto, Jean finds herself being courted by Hugh Fremont, a neighbour and a true Corinthian. Hugh shares her tastes and interests, he is both wealthy and handsome, and he wants to marry her. Before she can say yea or nay, though, Jean has to learn to trust her own heart.

Sophie is growing old and it’s time to tell her secret. She chooses to confide in Annie, a niece who may have chosen the wrong man to love.

In 1918 Sophie went to Cannon Beach, on the Oregon Coast, to keep house for two bachelor brothers. Fascinated with the view from the cabin, she decides to “paint” it with fabric, to create a quilt that pictures what she sees through her kitchen window. A neighbor, an artist, becomes first her friend, then her lover. But David is not free. He has a wife whom he loves, a wife who recently lost the child they had long hoped for. Can there be a way he can be with Sophie without betraying his wife?

Old memories, old pain, and a secret kept for most of a lifetime come to light as Sophie tells Annie her story. And when it is done, there is one more surprise.

Young love is a myth.

It’s something we’re conditioned to expect by movies and stories. It’s something we all wanted but could never find. And even when we get older and know the truth, we still wish, just a little, that we had it.

When two young cousins find themselves bored to tears at a family funeral, they find another cousin willing to tell them a little story about his young love: how a simple Valentine’s Day gift from a mini-mart became one of the best he’d ever given.

It’s a fine story on its own, but as the girls dig deeper, they find themselves enveloped in a longer saga, told one story at a time. One about the difference between a crush and love. One that challenges their notions of fate and perfection. One about how our own worst enemies can be ourselves, and how in the end, we’re all just a little messed up.

World-class bicyclist Stell McCray dreams of riding in the Sawtooth Classic, a women’s race as challenging as the tour de France. Sidelined by a serious accident, she concentrates on recovering her strength and her edge. Adam Vanderhook, sportswear manufacturer, thinks she’d be better off modeling and endorsing his new line of CycleWear. He knows what the cost of being best in the world can be. When Adam seeks a place at the center of her life, Stell has to decide whether she wants him more than the dream she’s had for so long. If Stell qualifies for the Sawtooth classic, Adam knows he’ll lose her.

Or will he? Might there be a life for them after the race?

Regina Lachlan isn’t a good traveler. She’s prone to motion sickness. So why does she agree to chaperone two young ladies to England and France?

Gabriel King is an agent for a quasi-official organization dedicated to eradication of white slavery and drug dealing throughout the world. His base is Italy, so why is he being sent to Paris? He doesn’t speak French.

Gabe and Regina have known–and loved–each other all their lives. While he would be happy to carry her off to his Italian villa, she can’t imagine abandoning her career and living in an strange land. She likes a placid, uneventful life and can’t understand how he can enjoy his silly spy games.

When Gabe is betrayed to his enemies, a dreadful coincidence endangers Regina and her charges. What happens next will challenge both of them, and its outcome could break their wills…and their hearts.

A trio of Regency love stories for Sweethearts’ Day!

BALD LIES

Audrina is desperate to ensure that Lord Blanford not only notices her beautiful cousin but marries her as well. However, Max’s head is beset by larger worries than matrimony–though he is curiously diverted by the antics of the flame-haired matchmaking minx. . . .

THE LAST VALENTINE

Exiled into obscurity by her odious father, Martine can only assume the romantic love notes on her doorstep are a mistake–intended for another. Who could it be? Only Cupid knows–as mischief and merriment mark the countdown to Valentine’s Day. . . .

LOVE AND TENDERNESS

Few blushing brides have their wedding night ruined by a ghost only they can see, but Senta’s hysterics send her groom running. Reconciling these stubborn newlyweds is no easy task–even for a handsome, oddly dressed apparition who calls himself the King . . . .

Robert Rothmore, Earl of Rockford, thinks Alissa Henning is simply delightful-exactly the kind of woman who’d make the perfect mother for his sons. But Alissa swore she’d spend the rest of her life scraping pennies together rather than wed the insufferable earl and become a glorified governess. Still, she couldn’t very well let her own children starve-and there was no doubt that Rockford would give them all a good life. So she reluctantly accepts his offer…but there’s more to a good life than what’s in one’s pockets. And Alissa intends to find out what’s in her new husband’s heart.

HER FORTUNE COULD BUY HER EVERYTHING…EXCEPT THE MAN SHE WAS FORBIDDEN TO LOVE

Elegant parties, designer clothes, and all the privileges of the very rich couldn’t replace the love missing from heiress Sara Underwood’s life. Then a visit to her family’s fabulous Kentucky horse farm brought her face-to-face with her destiny: handsome, proud Daniel Riordan, trainer of her grandfather’s thoroughbreds. His lilting Irish brogue thrilled her, his dark Celtic eyes haunted her dreams, his sensuous touch could take possession of her very soul. But a chasm of class and money would keep him forever at a distance unless Sara dared to risk her fortune and her heart to make Daniel hers for just one ecstatic moment…or for all time.